Rapper appears at White House evening poetry event, sidelined during afternoon session

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 11: Rapper/actor Common performs at the 4th Annual Rock The Kasbah Gala in Supoprt of Virgin Unite in the Grand Hall at the Dorothy Chandler Pavililon on November 11, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images for Virgin Unite)

The White House’s supporters fanned out to Fox News and MSNBC to offer a matching message — that Common supports progressive causes, supported Obama in 2008, and has opposed violence, drugs and sexism. Karl Rove also threw himself into the debate, showing that GOP advocates want to highlight the cultural gap between swing-voters and Obama’s Chicago friends.

By 3.00 p.m. Wednesday, neither Politico nor the New York Times offered items on the White House’s PR’s fiasco three days after it had first begun. The Washington Post’s web-site offered a short 190-word article quoting Carney and fairly summarizing the controversy. Cable-rivals MSNBC and Fox ran multiple segments on the dispute. ABC’s Jake Tapper covered the unfolding dispute with multiple tweets and an article on Carney’s comments.

The initial derision for Common’s “A Letter to the Law” rap, which was transcribed by TheDC, has evolved into a broader dispute that contrasts the rap culture championed by some – but certainly not all – urban African-Americans against that of mainstream America.

Once the controversy began, Common’s videos and bios were searched by critics, revealing his production of a video that lauded cop-killer Joanne Chesimard. The video, “A Song For Assata,” celebrated the 1970s black-supremacist who killed trooper Werner Foerster in 1973.

The video, according to an ABC transcript, shows Common declaring Chesimard’s innocence. “Assata had been convicted of a murder she couldna done…Medical evidence shown she couldna shot the gun…All of this sh*t so we could be free, so dig it, people.”

Other searches showed a video in which he criticized white women for dating African-American men, and an online conversation in which he called interracial-dating “a problem.”

Without denying those videos and statements, Common’s supporters argue that he is actually a moderating force in the often-brutal rap genre, which includes many products that glorify violence, cop-killing and sexism. Carney cited his role as a “conscious” rapper, in contrast to other genres, such as “gangsta” rap.

Those messages haven’t stopped conservatives from quoting Common’s anti-cop lyrics, citing his opposition to interracial dating, and highlighting protests by influential police organizations, including the New Jersey State Troopers Fraternal Association. By sheer bad luck, the White House’s event landed on the same week that police organizations annually commemorate dead police officers.