to -- encouraged others to kill stories about obama's pastor jeremiah wright in the 2008 presidential campaign. "in one instance, spencer ackerman of the 'washington independent' urged his colleagues to deflect attention from obama's relationship with wright by changing the subject. pick one of obama's conservative critics," he wrote. "fred barnes, karl rove, who cares, and call them racists." his colleague kevin drumm disagreed saying, "turning this into a gutter brawl would probably hurt the obama brand pretty strongly." ackerman struck back saying, "i'm not saying obama should do this. i'm saying we should do this." some of those included the threads are political science and journalism professors. we'll have more on the developing story wednesday on "special report." florida governor and u.s. senate candidate charlie crist tells the "wall street journal" it's a lot more fun being an independent.