Breitbart dangles $50 thousand reward for Khalidi-Obama video
Monday, July 30, 2012 at 11:03AM 
Header at Breitbart News offering reward for Khalidi-Obama video. (Screen snip: Breitbart news)Breitbart News is dangling a $50 thousand reward for a video:
[To the person who] can provide the complete video recording of the 2003 farewell party for radical Palestinian academic and activist Rashid Khalidi, at which then-state senator Barack Obama spoke--and which The Los Angeles Times has refused to release since reporting the event in April 2008.
Khalidi and his wife were frequent dinner companions of the president before he won the White House. President Obama's association with Khalidi has sparked controversy downplayed by sympathetic media.
Khalidi has been described by The L.A. Times as “an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights…”
Khalidi’s family has a history of government employment—his now deceased father worked for the United Nations and Khalidi and his wife both work for a university.
Khalidi is a controversial figure, with questions about potential past associations with the Palestine Liberation Organization. The professor was often cited by media as a spokesperson for the PLO, but Khalidi now denies that.
What’s interesting is that a major, politically active newspaper like The L.A. Times has a video that was relevant to the 2008 presidential election and remains relevant as November, 2012 approaches. Various media on the Right have alleged anti-Israel remarks were made during the farewell gathering.
The paper refuses to release the video, raising the question of whether there’s anything damaging on it.
If the president was a Republican, there’s no doubt in my mind the video would have been released long ago.
Political strategist Roger Stone commented on then-candidate Obama in 2008 and Stone’s assessment proved accurate:
The downside of yes, we can is the expectations of [Obama’s] voters—I want it now…Two years from now, nothing will change. There’s nothing new about this guy, except he’ll have warmed up to his Palestinian friends by then.
In offering the reward, Breitbart News set criteria:
The $50,000 reward is contingent on Breitbart News being able to obtain independent authentication of the video recording, as well as verification that the video recording contains Obama's complete remarks at the event.
The 2008 article at The L.A. Times is constructed in a manner that reflects positively on both Obama and Khalidi, bordering on outright advocacy as the 2008 elections loomed.
Related
Roger Stone’s prediction about Obama comes true as Mosque-gate sizzles (The US Report)
Undoing the Bush Letter [incl. Rashid Khalidi] (Campus Watch; reprinted from Commentary)
(Commentary by Kay B. Day/July 30, 2012)