September 8, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
The right-leaning editorial page of the Investor’s Business Daily last week attacked a charity in part for its association with Sen. Barack Obama’s wife.
The newspaper’s opinion page said that Public Allies, a charity that trains young people for public-service or nonprofit jobs, seems to have a worthy goal, but “its real mission is to radicalize American youth and use them to bring about ‘social change’ through threats, pressure, tension, and confrontation.”
Michelle Obama, the wife of the Democratic nominee for president, was the founding executive director of Public Allies’ Chicago program in the 1990s.
In response to the editorial, Public Allies said the writers “painted an inaccurate, distorted view of our work, which has been further distorted by many blogs. It is unfortunate that a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization has been used by IBD to attack the Obamas. No one associated with Public Allies was interviewed by IBD, so it is important to set the record straight.”
Far from being a “radical” organization, the charity has trained people who have worked for such well-known groups as the American Red Cross, the Boy Scouts of America, and Habitat for Humanity, Public Allies said in a press statement.
What’s more, the Bush administration has praised Public Allies for its role assisting the leaders of religious charities, the statement said.
(Read The Chronicle’s article about Ms. Obama’s role at Public Allies.)
