CNN: Obama rumor we disproved still spreading David Edwards and Jason Rhyne

Published: Wednesday December 5, 2007



del.icio.us

Print This Email This Almost a year after it debunked false claims that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) had attended an Islamic school as a child, CNN reports that the presidential hopeful is still struggling to quash rumors that he is a practicing Muslim. "Four weeks from the first primary and false rumors are still circulating about Barack Obama," reports CNN's Chris Lawrence, who says the Muslim myth is alive and well in early primary states critical to the senator's campaign. "On Tuesday, minsters rallied support in South Carolina...and the campaign is emphasizing Obama's life as a committed Christian." The rumors are apparently so pervasive that Obama staffers in the candidate's Iowa office even keep a letter "attesting to his faith" at the ready, which is signed off on by Christian ministers. The letter shoots down fabricated rumors including that the senator was sworn into office with a Koran, as opposed to the Bible. In Oklahoma, the campaign has begun distributing a brochure, entitled "Barack Obama Answering the Call," which literally spells out Obama's identification as a Christian. The inside of the pamphlet is emblazoned with with the phrase "COMMITTED CHRISTIAN" in large block letters. The root of the Muslim rumor can be traced to a January article in the conservative Insight Magazine, which cited claims from an unnamed source that Obama had attended an Islamic madrassa while living in Indonesia -- and that the information had been uncovered by the campaign of rival presidential contender Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY). The piece was later picked up by Fox News and the New York Post, among other news outlets. But CNN reporters determined that the senator's childhood school was public, and did not focus on religion. A recent front-page piece in the Washington Post, which examined the still-swirling rumors about Obama's faith, has drawn the ire from many left-leaning bloggers who accuse of the paper not being forceful enough in condemning the rumor as a falsehood. From the article: Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him In his speeches and often on the Internet, the part of Sen. Barack Obama's biography that gets the most attention is not his race but his connections to the Muslim world. Since declaring his candidacy for president in February, Obama, a member of a congregation of the United Church of Christ in Chicago, has had to address assertions that he is a Muslim or that he had received training in Islam in Indonesia, where he lived from ages 6 to 10. While his father was an atheist and his mother did not practice religion, Obama's stepfather did occasionally attend services at a mosque there. Despite his denials, rumors and e-mails circulating on the Internet continue to allege that Obama (D-Ill.) is a Muslim, a "Muslim plant" in a conspiracy against America, and that, if elected president, he would take the oath of office using a Koran, rather than a Bible, as did Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the only Muslim in Congress, when he was sworn in earlier this year. Writing at Talking Points Memo, Greg Sargent crowned the Post article the "Worst Hit Piece of Campaign 2008," and accused reporter Perry Bacon of recycling the rumor rather than dispelling it. "It's dismal enough that WaPo's free acknowledgment that these are rumors didn't stop the paper's editors from running this garbage on its front page," says Sargent in a post last month. "What's even worse is the fact that it doesn't get around to explaining the substance of Obama's denial of these rumors until the 12th paragraph." At the liberal blog Hullabaloo, Digby, who slammed the paper for not aggressively denying the rumor, wrote that the Post apparently thought that "'Republicans say Barack Obama is a Muslim and Obama says he isn't,' is a legitimate story." Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald also weighed in on the controversy, writing that the story had "simply passed on each side's 'views' without comment -- the factually true side and the factually false side -- as though they merited equal weight." Concluded Greenwald, "It isn't actually that complicated. When a government official or candidate makes a factually false statement, the role of the reporter is not merely to pass it on, nor is it simply to note that 'some' dispute the false statement. The role of the reporter is to state the actual facts..." This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast on December 5, 2007.









