While the internet buzzed with Breitbart News’ release of a booklet from President Obama’s literary agency circa 1991 describing him as being “born in Kenya,” the mainstream media still refuses to report the story, or plays defense for Obama.
Never mind that the agency used the “born in Kenya” biography until 2007. Never mind that authors who have worked with the agency state that the agency asks that authors pen their own biographies. Never mind that Obama has routinely padded his biographical details to appeal to particular audiences.
Nothing to see here.
Michael Shear, at the New York Times, was in full defense mode:
Perhaps the darker side of politics is always close to the surface … the conservative Drudge Report Web site published a headline: “BORN IN KENYA,” based on a three-decade-old promotional booklet for a publisher that included an inaccurate biography of Mr. Obama. It stayed on the site for much of the afternoon. The headline linked to a report at Breitbart news, another conservative site, which suggests that the booklet represents a pattern in which Obama — or the people representing and supporting him — manipulate his public persona.
We presented a document. The Times calls that “the darker side of politics.” Absurd. And that was the Times‘ only coverage of the story – dismissing Obama’s pattern of biographical manipulation without comment. All the news that’s not fit to print.
How about the Washington Post, the paper that assured us that Mitt Romney’s 50-year-old haircut incidents were news? It trotted out leftist stalwarts and Friends of Media Matters Greg Sargent and Erik Wemple to cover for Obama and his literary agency. Sargent scoffed, “rumor has it the whitey tape will break any minute now.” Wemple’s only comment: “Okay.”
Well, okay, then.
How about the Los Angeles Times, which still refuses to release tape of Obama speaking with Palestine Liberation Organization former spokesman Rashid Khalidi at an anti-Israel event? Not a word.
How about Obama’s hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune? Crickets. The Boston Globe? Nada. CBS? Nope. NBC? Nothing. ABC News’ website did mention the story, but only by syndicating a Yahoo! News report – and meanwhile, Jake Tapper was on Twitter, downplaying the story.
Huffington Post did cover the story – but not initially. Instead, they waited for Obama’s literary agent to fall on the sword, making the dubious claim that she had committed a simple “fact checking error” – a fact-checking error that lasted 16 years and two agencies, all the way until after Obama launched his presidential campaign in 2007.
What was Huffington Post’s headline? “Birthers Make Another Blunder.” Once you click in, the headline becomes, “Obama Birther Rumor Debunked As Literary Agent Clarifies Mistake.” The first line of the piece? “Barack Obama birth certificate conspiracy theorists have been foiled again.”
This leaves questions as to whether the Huffington Post’s editors are actually literate, since Breitbart News’ piece introducing the Obama bio explicitly states repeatedly that Breitbart News is not stating that Obama was born in Kenya, supports the veracity of the Obama birth certificate, and explains that the evidence goes to Obama’s construction of his own biography. Huffington Post did quote the original piece, but buried Breitbart News’ non-birtherism at the end of its article labeling the story a “birther” story. This is magnificently dishonest, and played just as Obama would have his minions play the story.
Politico‘s Dylan Byers covered the story by calling it “an old claim that Obama was born in Kenya.” This would be a lie. It’s not an “old claim.” It’s a biography put out by Obama’s literary agency, his legal representative in the literary world. And it lasted on their website for 16 years. No doubt Byers’ check is in the mail from the Obama campaign.
So, what important news was the mainstream media covering while conspicuously ignoring the hottest story on the internet, and a story that calls into question the character of the President of the United States?
The New York Times ran a piece on how one Jolie Clifford likes wearing clothing cribbed from 1950s issues of Playboy.
The Washington Post had an article on an angler who “may have broken world record with snakehead caught in Occoquan River.” The Post did not report whether Mitt Romney lashed the snakehead to the roof of his car.
The Los Angeles Times posted a piece explaining how Los Angeles’ electric car drivers are different from others across the nation.
The Chicago Tribune did an article on Doodling for Google. Whatever that means.
How about the Boston Globe? They don’t have anything on Obama’s bio. They do, however, want readers to know that “With jazz trio Pilc Moutin Hoenig, anything can happen.”
The NBC News website featured video showing a five-time “Jeopardy!” champ rating Chuck Todd’s “Celebrity Jeopardy!” appearance. Todd beat comedian Lewis Black and columnist Clarence Page, in case you were wondering.
CBS reports in breaking news that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, wife of former French President Nicholas Sarkozy, is returning to the music industry and will release a new album by the end of the year. The world waits with bated breath.
Clearly, the mainstream media has better things to do than cover stories calling into question how the President of the United States has spent his life constructing and reconstructing his persona. Clearly, they are too busy to vet this president. That’s why Breitbart News does it.