Conservatives again flog YouTube video of kids

Hotair.com: “liberal indoctrination camp.” On September 28, conservative blog Hotair.com posted video of the kids -- with their faces clearly shown -- performing at a PTA meeting at Sand Hill Elementary School in Asheville, North Carolina, with the caption “liberal indoctrination camp.” Hotair's Allahpundit wrote: “I'm honestly starting to lose count of how many of these there are. No 'mmm mmm mmm' in this one or creepy substitutions of The One for Jesus, but kudos to the teacher who came up with the 'change has come' drone. Reminds me of 'one of us, one of us.' "

Breitbart TV: “New Video Shows Kids Chanting Obama's Praise at NC School.” Andrew Breitbart also posted video of the kids on September 28 with their faces clearly shown. He posted it with the caption " 'Change has come': New Video Shows Kids Chanting Obama's Praise at NC School."

Fox & Friends' Doocy: Video that he “saw ... on Hotair.com this morning” looks like an Obama “campaign commercial.” On Fox & Friends, host Steve Doocy, after mentioning the YouTube video from the New Jersey school, said: “So anyway, there is a new video that has surfaced. We saw it on Hotair.com this morning. These kids are in North Carolina, in Asheville, at the Sand Hill Elementary School. And once again they're saluting Barack Hussein Obama.” After playing the video -- with the children's faces blurred out -- Doocy said: “It does sound like a campaign commercial where they are talking about change has come, change has come, yes, we can, yes, we can. I'm Barack Obama, and I approve that racket.” [Fox & Friends, 9/29/09]

Flashback: Schoolchildren also sang songs honoring President Bush

Huffington Post: Kids sang songs praising Bush after Hurricane Katrina. According to a September 25 Huffington Post article -- despite the Republican National Committee's accusations that the kids singing about Obama at the elementary school in New Jersey amounted to “indoctrination of our nations [sic] ... children,” “fanaticism,” and “propaganda” -- schoolchildren also sang about President Bush. From the article:

Alas, such “propaganda” has not been limited to despots, dictators and the Obama White House. As a savvy source points out, back in 2006 children from Gulf Coast states serenaded First Lady Laura Bush with a song praising the President, Congress, and Federal Emergency Management Agency for their response to -- of all things -- Hurricane Katrina. The lyrics were as follow:

Our country's stood beside us People have sent us aid. Katrina could not stop us, our hopes will never fade. Congress, Bush and FEMA People across our land Together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand-in-hand!

The event took place at that year's White House Easter Egg Roll and included roughly 100 children from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. President Bush, it seems, wasn't in attendance during the song itself. But he was there earlier, when the First Lady read the book, Will You Be My Friend: A Bunny and Bird Story by Nancy Tafuri, to the children.

“After the reading,” the Wall Street Journal reported at the time, “Mr. Bush asked, 'Did you like this book? Does it tell you about what people can do to help other people, what bird did to help bunny? Be kind to him and give him shelter.'”

The weather that day was described as a “chilly rain” which must have seemed appropriate given the fact that the Gulf Coast children were actually thanking the administration for its feeble response to the hurricane.

Media recently fearmongered about New Jersey school kids “SHOCK VIDEO,” claimed it's “indoctrination”

Conservative media: Video is “indoctrination.” Numerous media figures, including Fox News' Monica Crowley, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck, and CNN's Lou Dobbs, claimed a video -- originally flogged by the Drudge Report -- that purported to show "[s]chool kids taught to praise Obama" was evidence of “indoctrination.” Others compared the kids' performance to what might happen in a dictatorship. Beck said that the song sounded like “a hymnal for a dictator.” Rush Limbaugh compared the school activity to those seen in Cuba and Venezuela. MSNBC's Contessa Brewer said it's something “you might see coming from North Korea.” On Fox News' Hannity, guest S.E. Cupp said, “It's like Havana elementary school,” and Nina Easton claimed, “Mao would be proud.”

“SHOCK VIDEO” timeline: From YouTube, to conservative blogs and Drudge, to Fox News. Taking cues from conservative blogs and the Drudge Report, Fox News and its online properties promoted the video. Indeed, in discussing the significance of the story, Fox News host Megyn Kelly said that the video, which the school's superintendent has said was unauthorized, “is getting attention on the Drudge Report website this morning.”

Conservatives fearmonger about kids to smear progressives. Beck and other right-wing media figures have recently fearmongered about how Obama and progressive policies will harm children; among other things, Beck and these other media figures have repeatedly accused Obama of “indoctrinating” schoolchildren, aired unauthorized videos of children singing Obama's praises, and attacked Obama's “school safety czar.” On his September 28 television show, Beck continued the trend by hosting 9-12 Project mothers, along with their children, who are “concerned” about “their kids' futures.”

Transcript

From the September 29 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

DOOCY: At the end of last week we showed you that video that apparently was done at a school in South Jersey, where they were praising Barack Obama, and one of the -- apparently it was all for Black --

JULIET HUDDY (guest co-host): Barack Hussein Obama.

DOOCY: That's the one. It was for Black History Month and stuff.

BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): Mmm-mmm-mmm.

DOOCY: Well -- when you don't want to rhyme, that's all you say -- mmm-mmm-mmm. It worked for Campbell's.

KILMEADE: It worked for Campbell's. Yeah.

DOOCY: Yeah, exactly right. So anyway, there is a new video that has surfaced. We saw it on Hotair.com this morning. These kids are in North Carolina, in Asheville, at the Sand Hill Elementary School. And once again they're saluting Barack Hussein Obama.

CHILDREN [video clip]: Can we make America better? Yes, yes we can. Yes, yes, we can. [...] Change has come. Hope. Uniting blacks and whites. Hope. Being both Obama cannot take sides. Hope. Don't worry said hope. I will be your bridge. In time hope will be the bridge for others. Hope will last enough for you to make a difference.

HUDDY: Well, I think the interesting thing about this is where -- when it was actually done --

DOOCY: That's right.

HUDDY: -- this little routine. It was at a PTA meeting. So all the parents were sitting there.

DOOCY: And if they had a problem, they probably would have let people know right there. But, I mean, it does sound like a campaign commercial where they are talking about change has come, change has come, yes, we can, yes, we can. I'm Barack Obama, and I approve that racket.