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Jewish World Review March 1, 2011 / 25 Adar I, 5771 Journos' selective skepticism By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When he was a guest on NBC's "Meet the Press" program Feb.13, House Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, wanted to talk about the federal budget deficit and creating jobs. But host David Gregory wanted to talk about President Barack Obama's birth certificate.
Mr. Boehner said he thinks Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii, and is a Christian. But Mr. Gregory wanted the Speaker to denounce those who have doubts.
"As the Speaker of the House, as a leader, do you not think it's your responsibility to stand up to that kind of ignorance?" Mr. Gregory asked.
It was not his job to tell Americans what to think, Mr. Boehner responded.
"Why isn't it your job to stand up and say: 'No, the facts are these?'" Mr. Gregory persisted.
You remember how Mr. Gregory urged then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cal, to denounce the "truthers" who believed President George W. Bush orchestrated the 9/11 attacks?
You don't remember? Could that be because it never happened?
The resurgence of the "birther" controversy is primarily due to Hawaii's new Democratic governor, Neil Abercrombie, who on Christmas Eve pledged to settle the controversy over Mr. Obama's birth once and for all.
In 2008, the Obama campaign produced a "certification of live birth," which does not contain all the information contained in the long form, such as the hospital in which he was born and the name of the attending physician. There were contemporaneous birth announcements in two Hawaii newspapers.
On Jan. 14, Gov. Abercrombie told the Honolulu Advertiser his investigation had found a written record of Mr. Obama's birth. But eight days later, the governor told the Associated Press he wouldn't make it public. Four days after that, Gov. Abercrombie fired the head of the agency which keeps the state's birth certificates on file.
Under Hawaii law, Gov. Abercrombie could not make the birth certificate public unless Mr. Obama gave his consent.
Celebrity journalist Mike Evans, an Abercrombie friend, told a Minnesota radio station Jan. 20 that the governor had told him "there is no Barack Obama birth certificate in Hawaii, absolutely no proof at all that Obama was born in Hawaii."
When the stuff hit the fan, Mr. Evans walked that statement back. "Neil never told me there was no birth certificate," he told Fox News. "I never talked to him."
This could be interpreted as a non denial denial, because what Mr. Evans had told KQRS was that he'd talked "with Neil's office, Neil said he's searched everywhere, using his power as governor." Presumably, it was an aide who told him what the governor said.
There is no evidence Barack Obama was born anywhere other than Hawaii. But what Mr. Gregory insists are "obvious facts" rest on little more than Mr. Obama's assertions.
And there are problems with those assertions. School records and two of her high school friends show Stanley Ann Dunham, with little Barry in tow, was attending classes at the University of Washington in Seattle less than a month after Mr. Obama's birth. Barack Sr. and Stanley Ann did not live together after Barack Jr. was born, and may not have before. The president looks a great deal like his maternal grandfather, Stanley Armour Dunham, but not a bit like Barack Obama Sr.
If Mr. Obama were born in Hawaii, why couldn't Gov. Abercrombie find a birth certificate in his name?
When Barack's mother remarried, he was legally adopted by her new husband, Lolo Soetoro. Under Hawaii law, a new birth certificate would be issued in the name of the adoptive parent. Perhaps Hawaii has a birth certificate for "Barry Soetoro."
It isn't only about his birth certificate that Mr. Obama is secretive. Alone among other recent presidential candidates, he has refused to release his college records.
Journalists are taught to be skeptical. (If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.) But Mr. Gregory and many of his colleagues are indignant because some want something more than Mr. Obama's word that what he says is true.
"For the first time in the modern era, the major media chose not to know the background of a leading presidential candidate," said Jack Cashill, who has done research "mainstream" journalists should have done in 2008.
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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.
© 2009, Jack Kelly |
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