Flashback: Jeremiah Wright Praised CNN's Roland Martin As 'Long-Term Friend'

In an article on CNN.com today, CNN contributor Roland Martin lashes out at Republicans for any attempt–real or potential–to make Barack Obama’s incendiary former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, an issue in the 2012 elections. Martin fails to disclose that he is a “long-term friend” of Wright, according to a “shout-out” Wright gave Martin during a speech to the NAACP in 2008–long after Wright had become a notorious household name.

Here’s Wright on Martin (video below):

…An additional, special thank you is offered to Soledad O’Brien, for CNN’s outstanding Black in America, and my long-term friend Roland Martin. I believe that a change is going to come…

Here’s Martin on Wright today:

To all of you who love and adore the Republican Party, I’ll play your political priest and absolve you of all of your sins — said and unsaid — on this issue.

Making Wright a central campaign theme would have done nothing to keep Obama from beating McCain.

And while Republicans like Sarah Palin and countless mouthpieces on the right swear that Obama wasn’t properly vetted, just deal with the reality that your party lost in 2008.

Trying to dredge up Wright in 2012 simply won’t do it. It’s silly, childish, and frankly, shows a sign of desperation.

The fact that Martin and his colleagues are “long-term friends” of racist demagogues like Wright, and political admirers of Obama, has much to do with the way Wright’s beliefs were covered up for so long, and that the mainstream media declared that Obama’s fraudulent “race speech” had resolved the issue.

And the fact that Martin fails to acknowledge his friendship with Wright is evidence of the continued importance of vetting the media as well as the president.

By the way–is Martin still a “long-term friend” of Wright? And if so–why?