On the March 27 edition of MSNBC Live, senior campaign correspondent and former host Tucker Carlson described statements on the “pastor's pages” section of Sen. Barack Obama's church's newsletter as “wild,” “anti-Israeli statements” and asserted: “I think Obama will feel the need to address that directly fairly soon.” Later in the hour, specifically citing a column by a Hamas leader republished in the newsletter, host Andrea Mitchell asked Chicago Sun-Times Washington bureau chief Lynn Sweet: “Does he [Obama] have to do more explaining? Does he have to meet perhaps once again with Jewish leaders to try to reassure them that these are not his views as well?” Sweet responded: “Andrea, yes, yes, yes, and yes on everything you're saying. ... If you want to cut him slack and cut him a break on what he knew or didn't know about Jeremiah Wright's sermons, when you have your church bulletin print some of this stuff and you attend it over years, how could he not address it?” But no one mentioned that Obama has previously “condemned” his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright's “views on Israel” in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).

A portion of Obama's statement was published in a March 20 JTA article that quoted Obama as saying: “I have already condemned my former pastor's views on Israel in the strongest possible terms, and I certainly wasn't in church when that outrageously wrong Los Angeles Times piece was re-printed in the bulletin.” In the JTA article, Obama specifically condemned the republication of an article by Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook, originally appearing as a Los Angeles Times op-ed, in the “pastor's pages” section of the church's newsletter. By contrast, Mitchell reported on the March 27 edition of NBC's Today that “Obama told the Jerusalem Post the church was 'outrageously wrong' to reprint the article, and he denounced Hamas."

Carlson, Mitchell, and Sweet also did not mention that in his March 18 speech about race and the controversial remarks by Rev. Wright, Obama took issue with Wright's statements on Israel. In his speech Obama said of Wright's comments: “They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country ... a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.”

From the March 27 edition of NBC's Today:

MITCHELL: And now, even more controversy involving Reverend Wright. An Internet search reveals church bulletins over the past year with controversial “pastor pages” from the reverend. Some reprint anti-Israel writings from a range of people from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to an adviser to Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook.

One of Marzook's columns, reprinted by the church from the Los Angeles Times, says: “Why should any Palestinian recognize the monstrous crimes carried out by Israel's founders and continued by its deformed modern apartheid state?”

Obama told the Jerusalem Post the church was “outrageously wrong” to reprint the article, and he denounced Hamas.

From the 1 p.m. ET hour of the March 27 edition of MSNBC Live:

CARLSON: And if, I believe, there is another outbreak of Jeremiah Wright-related stories -- a flurry of them -- the predicate is already there, I think, and it's not clear that people will give Obama a pass a second time.

MITCHELL: Which there are already today, overnight. These church bulletins came out.

CARLSON: Yes.

MITCHELL: We went through a lot of them until the wee hours of the morning. And, in fact, some of them are deeply offensive to some people. You've been traveling.

CARLSON: Yes.

MITCHELL: You've heard some pushback even before these came out, and these are things that are not necessarily his writings, but this is the church bulletin, the “pastor's page” where he has an introductory passage and then introduces things that he is recycling, circulating to his flock. And they include writings from Hamas, and writings from the Nation of Islam, and some are mainstream. Some are Desmond Tutu, who has said some things that are offensive to large numbers of Jews, but he's a Nobel laureate --

CARLSON: Right.

MITCHELL: -- who is also, you know, a hero to many people who fought against apartheid. So it's a mixed bag.

CARLSON: The Israel question. And this has never gone away. This has been bubbling beneath the surface. We haven't spent a lot of time, I don't think, in the media talking about it. It's a problem, I believe, for Barack Obama, some very, very heavy -- wild, actually, anti-Israeli statements -- some of them are just factually untrue in -- on these “pastor's pages.” And I think Obama will feel the need to address that directly fairly soon.

MITCHELL: Let's take a look at a Gallup poll.

[...]

MITCHELL: In one bulletin, the remarks of a Hamas leader were reprinted and circulated to the parish -- to the congregation, rather -- quoting the Hamas leader, “Why should any Palestinian recognize the monstrous crime carried out by Israel's founders and continued by its deformed modern apartheid state?” [U.S. News & World Report editor-in-chief] Mort Zuckerman and Lynn Sweet rejoin me again.

Lynn, how difficult is this going to be for Obama? Does he have to do more explaining? Does he have to meet perhaps once again with Jewish leaders to try to reassure them that these are not his views as well?

SWEET: Andrea, yes, yes, yes, and yes on everything you're saying. Senator Obama's been trying to spend much of the last year in shoring up his support in the Jewish communities. He had a meeting a few weeks ago in Cleveland with 100 Jewish leaders there and activists. If you want to cut him slack and cut him a break on what he knew or didn't know about Jeremiah Wright's sermons, when you have your church bulletin print some of this stuff and you attend it over years, how could he not address it?