For the third week in a row, the media was using their power of watchdoggery to . . . attack US citizens. For the third week in a row, the media went after a group of citizens they have derisively labeled "the birthers."
For those not in the know, the group believes/suspects that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
Barack Obama has never released his birth certificate. If he were to release it (the vault version and, yes, the media understands the difference), he could put the rumors to rest immediately.
Instead of pointing that out, the media has decided to use their 'awesome' power to attack citizens. No, that's not why the First Amendment was created.
But they can't take the group seriously due to their own failures.
Part of the reason that there is distrust over Barack Obama's 'origin tale' is that the media was in the tank for Barack and did not do their jobs. That became obvious in September 2008 when reporters descended on Alaska and began probing every aspect of Sarah Palin's life.
It only underscored how little press scrutiny Barack Obama had ever been the subject of.
A politician running for office, let alone the highest office in the land, who's done a questionable land deal with a man under federal indictment? Generally, said politician is out of the race when that comes to light. But the press didn't probe, the press didn't report, the press instead offered justications and rationalizations.
Bill Ayers, a domestic terrorist, serves with Barack on two boards, has an office in the same building, is close with Barack and Michelle Obama and the media wants to pooh-pah that as not relevant. Usually with the lie that Barack "was only eight years old!" No, Barack was a college student, majoring in political science, when Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn became front page news, leading the evening news, as the two fugitives turned themselves in publicly. There wasn't a political science major in the country who wasn't aware of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn; however, Barack was allowed to lie that he'd never known about Weather Underground.
We can go down the list forever.
But the press gave Barack a pass. Polling has consistently shown that the American people believe that. In that environment, issues are raised. In that environment, one where the press refused to explore, issues are raised.
On the campaign trail, John McCain could often be found with his mother. Where was Barack's? Deceased. His only living US relative (older than him) was his maternal grandmother. Why wasn't she campaigning?
Those who want to argue that she was too fragile need to explain why she didn't campaign for her grandson (whom she raised) in 2003 and 2004 when he was running for the US Senate.
She didn't campaign for him. Even ill, she could have given interviews throughout 2007.
Instead, she was hidden away. (And she was hidden away.) Most Americans only became aware of her when Barack compared her to Jeremiah Wright.
Last year, Roberta McCain was four years short of 100 years old. And yet she was on the campaign trail, and yet she was at the RNC convention to hear her son speak.
No, it never made sense that the woman who raised Barack wasn't even present to hear him speak at the DNC.
It never made sense and it still doesn't if we're to buy that the two were that close in the later years. (They were not that close as demonstrated by Barack's repeated refusals this decade to visit her. A point the press never raised publicly.)
It never mad sense because most of us, picturing our grandson running for president, picture ourselves being there, campaigning for him, sharing stories that would endear him to voters.
Like everything else about Barack's narrative bandied about by the press, when the average citizen takes the Tales of St. Barack and puts it into their own narratives, their own experiences, it never adds up. It never makes sense.
At the heart of the Cult of St. Barack is disconnect between the myth from the meida and the reality of lived experiences.
Ridiculing the so-called 'birthers' is a press-must because their popularity goes to the fact that the press never did their job.
The idiot Kris Welch was mocking people who called Barack "Barry Soreto" apparently not grasping that was his name when he lived in Indonesia -- as one of the few documents the public has on Barack establishes.
Now young voters may be confused because they've never enrolled a child in a school. But those voters who have immediately grasp that this is different than the usual presidential narrative. They grasp that most presidents do not have former names or aliases.
Appearing on
NPR's The Diane Rehm Show Wednesday, California's faux liberal senator, Barbara Boxer, made an idiot of herself which is generally what Boxer does more and more these days.
A caller referred to the issue leading Diane Rehm to nicely summarize the issue in one sentence that didn't insult anyone. She then asked Boxer to comment. Boxer insisted she wasn't going to comment . . .
and then launched into a rant.
Coming up for air, Boxer forced an attempt at laughter and explained that it had just been pointed out to her that John McCain wasn't born in the United States and it was Democrats who had made sure he was eligible to run.
Boxer sounded like both an ass and an idiot. John McCain's father was stationed in Panama. That was an issue for some in 2000 (when he ran for the GOP nomination) and it was an issue for some in 2008. It's been well covered. The general attitude was that McCain's parents were both Americans and he was a natural born citizen. There was no need for legislation in Congress. But Boxer's right, it was pushed through. By Democrats.
By Barack's then gal-pal Claire McCaskill in fact.
Contrary to Boxer's summary, McCaskill introduced two proposals (neither was binding), S. 2678 and Senate Resolution 511. And those who question Barack's eligibility to be president of the United States are well aware of that and didn't need, as Boxer did, to learn of it 'recently.' (One wonders where Boxer was when McCaskill was attempting to garner support for the two proposals in the Senate?) Attempting to come off informed, Boxer only demonstrated how little grasp she has on a subject that she chose to address after insisting she wasn't going to speak of it.
The press is a powerful presence in American life. In our democracy, it is supposed to function to hold the powerful accountable. That is why we have the First Amendment in the first place. It was not invented to go after citizens, to launch non-stop attacks on Americans. It was invented to hold the powerful accountable.
Again, last week, Americans saw the press subvert the process and train their sites on average Americans.
If they're objective observers, the people are probably puzzled. We all know what a birth certificate is and, if we're honest, we know Barack has not released a birth certificate. And yet we see the press continue to insist (lie) that he has. Right away, it doesn't smell right. Right away, it raises issues of distrust (in the press).
Where was Barack born? Our opinion is in the United States and that's based not on press reports but on Ava and C.I.'s interviews in 2007 and 2008 with various people who knew Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr.
That's our opinion.
'Birthers' are of the opinion that he wasn't born in the US.
The press keeps presenting their opinion that he was born in the US as fact.
The only way anyone will know the truth is if Barack Obama releases his birth certificate.
That's not asking too much. It's never been asking too much.
Barack Obama ran on a personal narrative. In doing so, he invited acceptance of his narrative and speculation about it. No one's asking him to take a DNA test to prove he fathered children. He's only being asked to provide his birth certificate.
Does he have to?
No.
But if he doesn't, the press needs to stop attacking. There is something very strange about a politician supposedly bothered by the rumors (as Robert Gibbs has insisted repeatedly) who could end the same rumors just by releasing a document but who refuses to do so.
There is something very strange about that.
And that is what's at the root of the issue. Not someone being 'crazy' or being 'racist' or being not able to 'get over the 2008 election.' It's the strangeness aspect.
