Reality Check: Trying to Turn a Point of Pride into a Moment of Shame

Posted by Jesse Lee
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2009

Last night Fox News continued its disregard for the facts in an attempt to smear the Administration's efforts to win the Olympics for the United States. In the past, hosting the Olympics has been a source of pride and unity for the country, but once again Fox News' Glenn Beck program has shown that nothing is worthy of respect if it can be used as part of a partisan attack to boost ratings

RHETORIC:          BECK SAID VANCOUVER LOST $1 BILLION WHEN IT "HAD THE OLYMPICS."   Glenn Beck said, "Vancouver lost, how much was it? they lost a billion dollars when they had the Olympics."  [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]

REALITY:              VANCOUVER'S OLYMPICS WILL NOT TAKE PLACE UNTIL 2010.   Vancouver will host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games from February 12 – 28, 2010 and March 12-21, 2010, respectively. [Vancouver2010.com, accessed 9/29/09

REALITY:   CHICAGO HAS HAD ONE REDUCED-SERVICE DAY IN 2009, AND WILL HAVE TWO MORE ON THE FRIDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING AND ON CHRISTMAS EVE.  On August 17, 2009, CBS Chicago reported, "If you planned to check out a library book, visit a city clinic or have your garbage picked up on Monday, you're out of luck.   The City of Chicago is basically closed for business on Aug. 17, a reduced-service day in which most city employees are off without pay. City Hall, public libraries, health clinics and most city offices will be closed.  Emergency service providers including police, firefighters and paramedics are working at full strength, but most services not directly related to public safety, including street sweeping, will not be provided.  That also includes garbage pickup. Residents who receive regular collection on Mondays should expect trash to be picked up on Tuesday. Some other customers may experience a one-day delay as collectors catch up.  As part of the 2009 budget, three reduced-service days were planned for 2009, days which are unpaid for all affected employees -- the Friday after Thanksgiving; Christmas Eve; and New Year's Eve. The City Council recently approved moving the reduced-service day planned for New Year's Eve to Monday.  The 2009 budget anticipates saving $8.3 million due to the reduced-service days.   In addition to reduced service days, all non-union employees were asked to take a series of furlough days and unpaid holidays, and most non-sworn union employees agreed to similar unpaid time off." [CBS Chicago, 8/17/09]

Networks ignore that Fox News repeatedly falsely reported ACORN employee killed her former husband

Glenn Beck Revealed, Crying on Cue!

MCRAE:
When I come in December. I would like to come by the place, the
hospital, where he was born. Could you tell me where he was born? Was
he born in Mombasa
OGOMBE: No, Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America.


MCRAE: Whereabouts was he born? I thought he was born in Kenya.

OGOMBE: No, he was born in America, not in Mombasa.


MCRAE: Do you know where he was born? I thought he was born in Kenya. I was going to go by and see where he was born.


OGOMBE: Hawaii. Sir, she says he was born in Hawaii. In the state of Hawaii, where his father was also learning, there. The state of Hawaii.


WND has never reported this part of the McRae interview on its website, nor has it ever mentioned Ogombe.

THE LIE: The birth certificate released by the Obama campaign is a forgery or otherwise not authentic.

THE LIARS: In addition to previous references documented by ConWebWatch: Bob Unruh, July 20; Pat Boone, June 27.

THE TRUTH: An August 23, 2008, WND article got it right: "A
separate WND investigation into Obama's birth certificate utilizing
forgery experts also found the document to be authentic.

Further, FactCheck.org reported
that it has "seen, touched, examined and photographed the original
birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements
from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the
document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. ... Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said."Unruh's
July 20 article cites the research of "Ron Polarik" in promoting the
claim that the certificate is a forgery, but doesn't mention that it's
a pseudonym (though Unruh has previously noted that fact) or that Polarik's research has been called into question

THE LIE:
Obama's visit to Pakistan in 1981 raises questions about whether he's
an American citizen because Americans could not visit Pakistan at that time.
THE LIARS: In addition to those previously identified by ConWebWatch: Aaron Klein, July 7; Bob Unruh, April 28, May 19, May 21, May 28, May 29, June 12, June 26; Joe Kovacs, June 10, June 10; Chelsea Schilling, June 9; Joseph Farah, June 3, June 6; unbylined, June 8, June 10.
THE TRUTH: As ConWebWatch previously detailed, contrary
to claims that Americans could not visit Pakistan in 1981 (and,
therefore, Obama must have visited via another country's passport), a
June 1981 New York Times article states that "Tourists can obtain a free, 30-day visa (necessary for Americans) at border crossings and airports," and an August 1981 State Department travel advisory explains how Americans can obtain visas for visiting Pakistan

THE LIE: Both
parents must be citizens in order for a child to be born a "natural
born citizen." Obama is disqualified because his father was a British
and Kenyan subject.

THE LIARS: Joseph Farah, June 16; Bob Unruh, July 11, July 20; Chelsea Schilling and Joe Kovacs, July 14, July 15; unbylined, June 7; flyer, July 24.

THE TRUTH: As Salon.com has detailed,
the Supreme Court has never ruled directly on the question of what
"natural born citizen" means. However, the court ruled in 1898, in the
case U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, that a non-citizen's mere presence in the U.S. is enough to make their child, if born here, a natural-born citizen. WND has never told its readers about the Wong Kim Ark case.

Further, there is precedent for a president to have a non-citizen parent:
Chester A. Arthur, for one. WND has never told its readers about
Arthur's parentage, nor has it advocated overturning laws passed in the
Arthur administration, as various WND columnists have suggested should
be done if Obama is determined not to be a "natural born citizen."

WND finally admitted in an Aug. 10 article
by Drew Zahn that there are "arguments over just exactly what is a
'natural born' citizen" and that "a consensus on the correct definition
of 'natural born citizen' has eluded lawyers and scholars for more than
200 years." Zahn did not mention the Wong case.

While WND has proven itself to be a serial liar, it deserves credit for finally backing off one birth certificate-related lie.
In its enthusiasm to smear Obama, WND has ignored the fact, and Farah has actively denied, that it originally reported
about the birth certificate in August 2008 that a "WND investigation
into Obama's birth certificate utilizing forgery experts also found the
document to be authentic."But in a July 17 column
-- done as an letter to Rep. Jay Inslee, who had cited that WND article
in telling a constituent that Obama was, in fact, eligible to be
president -- Farah finally conceded the truth, admitting for the
first time to his readers: "Yes, it is true that I do not believe that
document to be a forgery and WND has reported that."On the other hand, Farah lied to Inslee in his letter: "Are you not aware that the only living person in the world claiming to be present at his birth swears it took place in Mombasa, Kenya?"And Farah wonders why he's not taken seriously as a journalist.(8/10/2009 Update: Added section on the claim that both parents must be citizens for a child to be a "natural born citizen."

WND Watch: fails to tell the truth about Berger Bergerhttp://www.democraticunderground.com

The criminal investigation of former National Security Adviser Sandy

Berger – accused of pocketing highly classified terrorism documents

prior to the Sept. 11 Commission hearings – is now before a federal

grand jury, according to an *ANONYMOUS source* (my emphasis) with

knowledge of the probe."(Berger) has been interviewed several times by federal agents – FBI

and prosecutors," the source told the New York Post.

Department of Justice spokesman Mark Corallo did not return

WorldNetDaily's call requesting comment.

In October, a Justice spokesman told WND that a criminal

investigation was ongoing, but he would not provide details about its

nature or timing. The investigation began last spring when archives staffers ran a

sting operation after they reported seeing Berger sneak out

classified documents in his pants and socks.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42...

Using anonymous 'sources', eh? I guess WND is practically the same as

Weekly World News. The pants and socks thing is a lie, this is according to Media Matters for America.
Berger never said that he put the documents in his pants or his socks, and there is no
on-the-record substantiation of the charge that he did so. In fact, as Media Matters previously documented, Berger and his lawyer, Lanny Breuer, have said for the record that:


1) Berger inadvertently put several copies of classified documents
into a leather portfolio he was carrying; and 2) that Berger put
handwritten notes, which he had made while reviewing the documents,
in his jacket and in his pants pockets. Breuer was quoted in the July
21, 2004, New York Times as saying that while Berger had put his
handwritten notes in his jacket and pants pockets, "If there's a
suggestion that he's shoving things down his pants, that is categorically false and ridiculous."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200501130011

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wnd_watch/message/4
Obama birth claim spreads despite evidence

By Steven Thomma

McClatchy Newspapers

Updated: Sunday, August 2, 2009 4:11 AM EDT

WASHINGTON -- The false allegation that President Barack Obama was born in another country is more than a fact-free smear.
Marked by accusations and backstabbing, it’s the story of how a small but intense movement
called "birthers" rose from a handful of people prone to seeing conspiracies, aided by the Internet, magnified without evidence by eager radio and cable TV hosts, and eventually ratified by a small group of Republican politicians working to keep the story alive on the floors of Congress and the campaign trails of the Midwest.
It’s a powerful storyabout what experts call political paranoia over a new face in a time of
anxiety and rapid change — the sort of viral message that can take hold
among a sliver of the populace that’s ready to believe that their new
president is a fraud, and just as ready to angrily dismiss anyone who
disagrees with them as part of the conspiracy


"He is NOT an American
citizen," yelled a woman at a town hall meeting in Delaware, angrily
confronting a congressman. "I don’t want this flag to change. I want my
country back."


When Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., responded that Obama is a citizen, she and others in the room jeered him "It’s a fascinating  phenomenon," said Jerrold Post, director of the political psychology
program at George Washington University’s Elliott School of
International Affairs and author of the recent book "Political
Paranoia.""They are not searching for the truth. They are searching for anything that
confirms their fixed idea, their malevolent idea. ... It doesn’t soothe
people to tell them it’s not legitimate. That makes them angry."
Birthers charge that Obama hasn’t proved that he was born a U.S. citizen, and therefore
isn’t eligible to be president under the constitutional requirement
that the president be 35 years old, be a resident of the country for at
least 14 years, and be a natural-born citizen.
They also say that birth certificate posted on the Internet by Obama during his campaign
isn’t the original, and a forgery anyway.


The facts 
First, the 2007 document isn’t a forgery. Independent experts from such groups as FactCheck.org at the University of Pennsylvania have examined it and said it’s real.
Second, it’s true thatthe 2007 document issued by the state of Hawaii, called a Certification
of Live Birth, isn’t a copy of the original 1961 document. The longer, original form would show more details, including the name of the doctor, according to copies of other 1961 birth certificates.
White House aides say only that Obama has produced his birth certificate. That’s true. It is
a birth certificate, issued by the state Health Department and
acceptable to prove citizenship to the federal government for purposes
of obtaining a passport. It’s also true that it isn’t the original birth certificate.
Regardless, Hawaiistate officials said again last week that they’ve examined the original
and affirmed that it shows that Obama was born there.
Also, the two Honolulu newspapers report that they carried brief announcements of the birth of
a boy to the Obamas in 1961. Said the Aug. 13 birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser: "Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy, son, Aug. 4."
The Hawaii state Health Department says it supplied the lists of births for those
announcements. Announcements supplied by families were longer, more
personal and normally included the child’s name.
Many birthers, such as Pennsylvania attorney Phil Berg, allege that Obama was born in Kenya
and that his Kenyan grandmother is on tape saying that she was present
at his birth there.Yet the tape circulated on the Internet doesn’t actually say that — and the full tape actually contradicts it.On the tape, the woman
thought to be Sarah Obama is prodded by a Berg ally who’s a
self-described bishop from the U.S. to affirm that Obama was born in Kenya

"Was she present when he was born in Kenya?" Bishop Ron McRae asks in the taped phone call.
"She says yes she was. She was present when Obama was born," says the voice of translator

The tape ends abruptly.Despite Berg’s assertions, the response didn’t actually confirm a birth in
Kenya. Moreover, a longer version of the tape shows the elder Obama
decidedly denying a Kenyan birth immediately after the first tape was
cut off. "I would like to go by the place, the hospital where he was born. Can you tell me where he was born? Was he born in Mombasa?" McRae is heard asking.

"Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America," the translator says after talking to the woman. "I thought he was born in Kenya," McRae asks again."He was born in
America, not in Mombasa," says the response. Another response later
says, "Obama in Hawaii. Hawaii. She says he was born in Hawaii."
Still, the charge has spread despite no evidence that Obama was born in Kenya
and compelling evidence that he was born in Hawaii.


The players


A handful of people started spreading the story.

ANTHONY MARTIN:
Martin, a Chicagoan, is a legal gadfly who was among the first to file
a lawsuit demanding to see Obama’s birth certificate in Hawaii, which
was denied last year.
 "I would like to claimthe role of ringmaster in this birth certificate circus," Martin said
last week on his Web site. "From the first day I began writing about
Barack Obama’s secret life five years ago, Obama has obstructed access
to the truth about himself. Obama’s sycophants in the media and
government have tried to protect him from the truth and the facts ofhis life."A frequent
and always unsuccessful candidate for office — he’s running this time for U.S. Senate in Illinois — Martin was the first to charge that Obama was a Muslim.


In an e-mail, he distanced himself from other birthers who claim that Obama was born in
Kenya. "I have continually expressed doubt about the Kenya theory," he
wrote. "I openly state that there is a not a shred of credible evidence
Obama was born in Kenya."
Martin has a history of inflammatory and often anti-Semitic comments. He once called a
Chicago judge a "crooked, slimy Jew who has a history of lying and
thieving common to members of his race." When he was preparing to run
for office in Connecticut, one of his campaign documents said that a
purpose of the campaign was to "exterminate Jew power." A court filing
in 1983 stated, "I am able to understand how the Holocaust took place,
and with every passing day feel less and less sorry that it did."
Asked about the anti-Semitic comments, Martin said they "took place over a quarter of a
century in a very vicious lawsuit in which names were called on all
sides."
ORLY TAITZ: An attorney and dentist from Orange County, Calif., she’s filed lawsuits
challenging Obama’s citizenship and has traveled the country to marshal
support for her drive to prove that Obama is not a citizen and should
not be president. Her Web site asks people to contribute money via a PayPal account
She filed one lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court; it was dismissed. She
filed another in Georgia on behalf of an Army Reserve officer who
wanted to take back his volunteer offer to serve in Afghanistan because
Obama was a foreigner and not really his commander in chief. The Army
excused the officer from going to Afghanistan, saying any volunteer
could back out. In an interview, Taitz
insisted that she has evidence that Obama was born in Kenya — but that
she won’t release it publicly until it’s authenticated.
She also said that she has records showing that Obama’s mother did not go to Hawaii after the
birth, but rather enrolled in the University of Washington three weeksafter it. She added that she has proof that Obama is using a false Social Security number from someone who was born in 1890.

Taitz said the burden of proof is not on her, but on Obama.
"I don’t need to prove anything," she said. "He’s the one that needs to provide proper
evidence that he is qualified to be president."
She once drove to a legal conference in Washington state to press Chief
Justice John G. Roberts to consider Obama’s citizenship; he declined to
comment on any possible case as security officers prepared to escort
her from the conference. She’s also met with Republican state lawmakers in Missouri. "She had a lot of documents there and has done a lot of traveling and spent a lot of money on the
legitimacy of his citizenship," said Missouri state Rep. Ed Emery, a Republican.
Taitz boasts on her personal blog each time a prominent Republican, such as a member of
Congress or Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele,
signs up as a "friend" on her Facebook account, although many public figures often sign off on such links routinely. "I am in total disbelief and greatly honored," she said in one post on her blog. "It
means that the leadership of the Republican Party understands the
importance of the issues and legal cases I brought forward.

Not so fast, said RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho.  "Chairman
Steele has thousands of Facebook friends. Obviously it doesn’t mean he
endorses the agendas of all of them," she said. "Chairman Steele
believes this is an unnecessary distraction and that the president is a U.S. citizen."
PHILIP BERG: Berg, an attorney from Pennsylvania, has also has filed lawsuits unsuccessfully
challenging Obama’s citizenship and presidency.
"This has been a real sham," Berg said at one point to radio talk-show host Michael Savage.
Berg’s seen other conspiracies as well. In 2004, he filed a lawsuit against
then-President George W. Bush — not to mention every male Bush from two
generations — charging that the government secretly allowed the 2001 terrorist attacks to happen.


In detail, Berg’s suit alleged that the World Trade Center towers were destroyed from within
and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency maintained "a black-op
shadow government designed to replace the elected government of the
United States." (FEMA at the time was run by Michael Brown, later
infamous for his stewardship of the agency following Hurricane Katrina.)
Berg didn’t respond to requests to comment.
Once allies with Orly Taitz — the two appeared together in December at the National Press
Club — Berg has had a falling out with the Californian, who’s won more media attention.

"Orly Taitz, esquire, must be disbarred," Berg said in June as he filed a lawsuit against her.

"Orly has been grabbing the headlines but doing disservice to the millions who want
Obama to prove he is constitutionally eligible/qualified to be
president. ... Orly has only one case pending ... I have three lawsuits pending."


JEROME CORSI: A writer at the Web site WorldNetDaily, Corsi has said repeatedly through such
venues as the G. Gordon Liddy radio show that the birth certificate Obama’s campaign posted on its Web site was fake. "It’s a fake document," he said on Fox News. "I’m convinced it’s a forgery," he saidon Blogtalkradio.com.


Corsi was a co-author of "Unfit for Command," a book slamming 2004 Democratic
presidential nominee John Kerry, and the author of "Obama Nation," a book slamming Obama last year. The book’s opening lines credit theinfluence of Andy Martin.
Democrats weren’t his only targets. He’s said that Bush was secretly trying to surrender U.S.
sovereignty to a new North American Union that would govern Canada,
Mexico and the United States. "His secret agenda is to dissolve the
United States of America into the North American Union," he wrote at one point.

Many mainstream conservatives recoiled at the North American Union conspiracy theory.
Talk show host Michael Medved, for example, called it "paralyzing,
puerile paranoia." Corsi couldn’t be reached to comment.
Spreading the story
The Internet helped spread the story, through Web sites such as WorldNetDaily and dozens of
other conservative sites, often repeating charges without evidence or attribution beyond other like-minded Web sites."This is abetted by
changes in the structure of communications," said Michael Barkun, an
expert in conspiracy theories and a political science professor at the
Maxwell School at Syracuse University. "What once would have
been fringe ideas are spread very quickly and much more widely than
would have been the case even 10 years ago. ... Ideas that originate in
quite small subcultures can very quickly get mainstreamed." Once the story spread
on the Internet, several of the birthers have found a stage on talk
radio and cable TV. Lou Dobbs of CNN, for example, has said he thinks
the allegation is false, yet he continues having the birthers on.
Radio talker Rush Limbaugh has joked about it, saying, "Barack Obama has one thing in
common with God. You know what it is? God doesn’t have a birth certificate either." Sean Hannity
prominently featured Andy Martin on his Fox News program during the
2008 presidential campaign. Hannity also heavily promoted Corsi when Corsi’s anti-Obama book came out. Talk show host Liddy has repeatedly featured stories charging that the president was born in Kenya. Ultimately, the story has taken hold with some Republicans. Rep. Bill Posey,
R-Fla., introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would
require a presidential candidate to produce a birth certificate
"together with such other documentation as may be necessary" to prove
natural-born citizenship. It would take effect in 2012, in time to force Obama to produce more documentation. Posey has nine co-sponsors so far, all Republicans. In the Senate, Sen.
James Inhofe, R-Okla., told the Tulsa World he didn’t think it was a
priority, but that he understood the birthers’ quest. "I don’t discourage them from going ahead and pursuing that," he said. There are signs that Republicans see political risk in encouraging the birthers.
Steele distanced himself from them on Thursday. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, his party’s
leader in the House, said he has other priorities, and that he has no reason to believe the allegation.
Fox Reporter Contradicts Fox: DHS Report On Right Wing Was ‘Requested By The Bush Administration’