When Michel Martin‘s “Tell Me More” show replaced the BBC News World Service on WAMU earlier this year, I was less than pleased. And after listening to her first couple of shows, I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t have the radio on in the background during her timeslot. But, over time, she’s either come into her own or I’ve just done a better job of listening – I now appreciate her as an excellent interviewer, and as someone who is unafraid of being direct on uncomfortable subjects.
Today, she took a few minutes to offer an unflinching and clear eyed observation on the chattering class’s claim that they would have stood up and walked out of Rev. Wright’s now infamous sermons. To wit:
I have had it up to here with members of the commentariat who keep lecturing us about how they would never have tolerated the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s more incendiary sermons, and they wonder why Barack Obama did. They would have walked on out [of the church].
Can I just tell you? I don’t think so.