[big campaign] ALERT: Anti-Obama Author Jerome Corsi on Larry King Tonight!

From:kfrisch@mediamatters.org To: bigcampaign@googlegroups.com Date: 2008-08-13 19:41 Subject: [big campaign] ALERT: Anti-Obama Author Jerome Corsi on Larry King Tonight!

Tonight on Larry King Live... The Obama Nation's Jerome Corsi VS Media Matters' Paul Waldman Just an FYI for those following anti-Obama book author Jerome Corsi's appearances to promote The Obama Nation. He will be appearing on Larry King Live Tonight opposite Media Matters' own Paul Waldman. If you feel moved to pick up the phone and call in to challenge Corsi on the problems with his past and his book I'm sure that could prove useful. Tune in tonight for the phone number which is usually shown on screen and read on-air by King. Remember that you may want to present yourself as a Corsi fan to get on the air if too many well-informed Corsi critics call in. Larry King Live tonight 9pm ET, 6pm PT You can arm yourself with the facts on Jerome Corsi and his book with the following talking points/research: Top Line Message/Talking Points On Corsi and The Obama Nation * Jerome Corsi's book, as Media Matters has documented, is riddled with smears, distortions, and wild accusations against Sen. Barack Obama. * The fact that anyone in the media would consider hosting this man without grilling him on the serious errors he passes off as legitimate criticism is recklessly irresponsible. * This is the same man who helped launch the equally distortion-filled Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry in 2004 - attacks that many in the media, in retrospect, have said they should have done a better job of exposing. * That the media is once again giving Corsi air-time to promote his bogus accusations is a serious problem. On the Swift Boating of Obama * Corsi's latest tome is eerily reminiscent of the baseless Swift Boat attacks he helped lead in 2004 against Kerry. * What started with Unfit for Command, an error riddled screed co-authored by Corsi, lead to media coverage, tens of millions of dollars in television ads that distorted Kerry's war record and still more media coverage. * Its time for the media to nip this in the bud and do what many now admit they should have done four years ago - expose Corsi for who he is On the Right-Wing Noise Machine * Conservative authors like Corsi have an echo chamber of right-wing talk radio programs, print publications and cable news broadcasts to rely on when it comes to promoting their work - however disingenuous. * They are no long confined to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, The Washington Times and Fox News to sell their books. * Willingly or not, mainstream media outlets the American people rely for important news have become cogs in the right-wing echo chamber. * For forty years conservatives have been working the refs with mythical allegations of liberal media bias resulting in a press corps that bends over backwards lest they be tarred with the same tired complaints. * So, instead of balance and accuracy what we all too often end up with is a structural advantage for conservatives in the media. Other Background on Jerome Corsi * A frequent poster on the right-wing website FreeRepublic.com in the past, Media Matters exposed the bigoted nature of many of his postings in 2004 including: * Corsi on Islam: "a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion" * Corsi on Catholicism: "Boy buggering in both Islam and Catholicism is okay with the Pope as long as it isn't reported by the liberal press" * Corsi on Muslims: "RAGHEADS are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters -- it all goes together" * Corsi on "John F*ing Commie Kerry": "After he married TerRAHsa, didn't John Kerry begin practicing Judiasm? He also has paternal grandparents that were Jewish. What religion is John Kerry?" * Corsi on Senator "FAT HOG" Clinton: "Anybody ask why HELLary couldn't keep BJ Bill satisfied? Not lesbo or anything, is she?" * In January 2005, Corsi told the Boston Herald that he planned to run for Kerry's Senate seat in 2008 as a Republican or Independent. In May 2005, while on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Corsi said his wife had "vetoed" this plan. * In 2006, Corsi stated "Howard Phillips of the Constitution Party asked me to consider seriously running for president in 2008 and I am doing so." Background Simon & Schuster Imprint Threshold Editions, Corsi's Publisher * Threshold Editions is a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster run by editor-in-chief Mary Matalin, a former advisor to many powerful establishment conservatives including most notably Vice President Dick Cheney. * Threshold Editions has published works by Mary Cheney, Karl Rove, John Bolton and Glen Beck. * It has been reported that Mary Cheney was paid an advance in the "million-dollar range" for her book. * It has also been reported that Rove will be receiving $1.5 million for his forthcoming book published by Threshold. * Threshold published Beck's last book and has reportedly signed him to a $3 million two book deal. Summary of Media Matters Research Corsi's The Obama Nation In the preface of his recently released book, Corsi writes: "My intent in writing this book, as was the case in coauthoring Unfit for Command, is to fully document all arguments and contentions I make, extensively footnoting all references, so readers can determine for themselves the truth and validity of the factual claims." Indeed, Corsi's comparison of the two books seems quite apt: Just as Unfit for Command contains false and baseless attacks on Sen. Kerry's military service, a Media Matters review finds that Obama Nation similarly contains numerous falsehoods about Sen. Obama on wide range of issues: * Obama's position on abortion: On Fox News' Hannity's America, Jerome Corsi falsely claimed of Obama's time in the Illinois state legislature: "Even if a child was born, he said the woman still had the right to kill the child in an abortion." Similarly, on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Corsi falsely claimed that "[a]fter a child's born, Obama ... in the [Illinois] state Senate, wanted the child killed if the mother desired an abortion." And on ABC Radio Network's The Sean Hannity Show, Corsi claimed that Obama "support[ed] even late term, induced abortions where the baby lives. Obama's on record as let's kill the baby if that's what the mother wants." In making the false assertion about Obama's position -- Obama has of course never supported giving people the right to kill their children -- Corsi was also misrepresenting the legislation to which he was referring, a bill amending the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975. Opponents of the bill said the legislation was unnecessary as the Illinois criminal code unequivocally prohibits killing children, and said that it posed a threat to abortion rights. * Global Poverty & Nuclear Weapons: Global Poverty Act of 2007 "would commit the U.S. to spending 0.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product on foreign aid," and basely describes Obama's views on nuclear weapons as an "antiwar, antimilitary posture that places him even further left than Senator George McGovern." * The divorce of Obama's mother and father: Corsi baselessly suggests that Obama's father may have divorced his mother "following the prescripts of Islamic sharia law." Corsi's sole source for this statement is a blogger who made the claim in a March 20 post, which featured the false headline, "BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA WAS MUSLIM FOR 31 YEARS" and misstated Obama's mother's name. The blogger Corsi cited, "Majalah Bulanan Kumunitas Indonesia Di Edmonton," provided no substantiation for the claim that "the senior Obama divorced Dunham according to Sharia law." * The dedication of Dreams of My Father: Corsi falsely claims that Obama did not dedicate Dreams from My Father to his mother or his grandparents. In fact he did. * The birth of Obama's half-sister: Corsi falsely claims that Obama does not mention the birth of his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, during the chapter in Dreams in which he discusses his time living in Indonesia. She is in fact mentioned. * Obama's "childhood friend" Zulfin Adi: Corsi writes that in a March 16, 2007, Los Angeles Times article, "The newspaper quoted Zulfan Adi, who described himself as one of Obama's closest childhood friends" during his time in Indonesia. In fact, as Media Matters has noted, key aspects of the March 16 Los Angeles Times article were later challenged by the Chicago Tribune, which reported that Adi said he "was not certain" about his statements regarding Obama's childhood and that he "only knew Obama for a few months." * Drug use: Corsi falsely claims that Obama "has yet to answer questions" concerning whether "he stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college, or whether his drug use extended into his law school days or beyond." In fact, Obama wrote in Dreams that he "stopped getting high" shortly after moving to New York City to attend Columbia University as an undergraduate. * Obama and City College of New York: Corsi falsely claims that Obama "does not mention in his autobiography" that after graduating from Columbia, he "was working as a community organizer out of the Harlem campus of the City College of New York." Again, Obama discusses this work in Dreams. * Rezko and the Obamas' house: Discussing the house Barack and Michelle Obama bought in 2005, Corsi falsely cites a February 1 Salon.com article for the claim that convicted Chicago businessman Antoin Rezko "found the house for Obama. Salon.com reported that Donna Schwan of Metro Pro Realty, the real estate agent who listed the property, recalled the deal starting when Rezko expressed interest in the listing" [Page 165]. In fact, in the Salon.com article Corsi cites, Edward McClelland reported: "Asked who approached her about the house, Schwan told Salon, 'I honestly don't remember. Tony Rezko lived across the street, so he'd been interested in the lot.' " In an interview with the staff of the Chicago Sun-Times, Obama asserted that it was his wife who found the house. * NewsMax, Obama, and Trinity Church: Corsi falsely claims that "NewsMax's Ronald Kessler reported that Obama had been in Trinity United Church of Christ on July 22 [2007], when Kessler was present," during which Obama's then-pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, gave a sermon in which he "blamed the 'white arrogance' of America's Caucasian majority for the world's suffering, especially the oppression of blacks." In fact, Kessler did not report that he had been at Trinity United on that date. Kessler's March 16 Newsmax report cited an August 9, 2007, Newsmax.com article by "freelance reporter" Jim Davis and stated: "On July 22nd [2007] he [Davis] sat next to Barack Obama as Barack Obama heard some of these same statements from that very preacher [Wright] and was nodding along." While Corsi he did not note that, as reported by several media outlets, Obama was in Miami on July 22, 2007, speaking at the National Council of La Raza's (NCLR) annual convention. * Capital Gains: Corsi writes that in a September 19, 2007, blog post, U.S. News & World Report money and politics blogger James Pethokoukis "pointed to the result of most Democratic plans to increase corporate taxes: the government ends up collecting less capital gains tax revenue, not more." However, as Media Matters has documented, numerous economists have challenged the assertion that cuts in the capital gains tax raise revenue in the long term. Additionally, Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation estimated in June 2006 that the 2006 extension of the 2003 cuts on capital gains taxes would result in decreased revenues of $20 billion over 10 years. * Size of the military: Corsi falsely claims that Obama "has pledged to reduce the size of the military." Similarly, Corsi writes that "Obama will undoubtedly campaign in the general election saying he wants to maintain a strong military, just as he will say he is fully committed to the survival of Israel. Obama's problem is that neither position may be credible in the face of video clips that show him saying he wants to reduce the military, cut nuclear weapons, and pull out of Iraq" In fact, during the Democratic primary, Obama repeatedly asserted that he would "increase our ground forces by 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines." * Obama and Afghanistan: Discussing Obama's "antiwar ... foreign policy," Corsi conflates Iraq and Afghanistan to falsely suggest that Obama supports "de-escalat[ing]" troops from Afghanistan. But Obama's January 2007 bill -- the Iraq War De-escalation Act of 2007 -- establishes a timetable for the withdrawal of most troops from Iraq, and calls for "appropriate units of the Armed Forces" to be redeployed to Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region, as well as "elsewhere, to meet urgent United States security needs." -K ----------------------------------- Karl Frisch Communications Director Media Matters for America 202-772-8156 phone 202-756-4101 fax kfrisch@mediamatters.org<mailto:kfrisch@mediamatters.org> <http://www.mediamatters.org>http://www.mediamatters.org Media Matters for America is a progressive research and information center dedicated to monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the media. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "big campaign" group. 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