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Wash Post Buys Into Anti-Obama anti-Muslim Smears
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Consortium News - Nov 29, 2007
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/112907.html
WPost Buys into Anti-Obama Bigotry
By Robert Parry
Normally when the Wa****ngton Post refers to stories on the Internet "
even legitimate ones like thinking Al Gore prevailed in the news
medias recount of Florida ballots " the Posts writing drips with
sarcasm as it mocks supposed conspiracy theorists.
But a very different " even respectful " tone infused a front-page
story on right-wing rumor-mongering about Barack Obamas alleged
adherence to the Muslim faith.
That Nov. 29 article is constructed almost as a justification for
spreading these rumors, including the one about Obamas supposed
childhood attendance at a religious madrassah, a slur that was debunked
earlier this year.
The Post article by Perry Bacon Jr. begins by essentially blaming Obama
for inviting this outbreak of bigotry. In his speeches and often on
the Internet, the part of Sen. Barack Obamas biography that gets the
most attention is not his race but his connections to the Muslim
world, the story states.
Though noting that Obama is a member of the United Church of Christ in
Chicago, the article then veers off into a recitation of right-wing
accusations which have circulated on talk radio and the Internet.
The Post, however, treats these slurs seriously, avoiding any direct
criticism of their lack of sup****ting evidence and relying on Obama and
his backers to provide the only counter-balance. The Post, in effect,
has given its blessing to the legitimacy of the smears.
The article reads: 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.
Nowhere in the Post story does the newspaper comment on the lack of
proof that Obama is a Muslim plant or that he is part of a
conspiracy against America or that he would use the Koran at his
inauguration.
Indeed, the reference to Ellison seems intended to give substance to
the right-wing claims though the Post doesnt mention the more relevant
point, that Obama did not use the Koran when he was sworn in as a
senator.
To further bolster the right-wing innuendos, the Post recounts elements
of Obamas family history, including that his paternal grandfather was
a Muslim and that Obamas stepfather occasionally attended services at
a mosque in Indonesia.
Anti-Muslim Bigotry
In another stab at justifying its highlighting to what amounts to
anti-Muslim bigotry, the Post notes that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt
Romneys Mormon faith has been a campaign issue on the Republican side.
An obvious difference, however, is that Romney describes himself as a
Mormon and Obama denies that he is a Muslim.
After briefly recounting how Obama has dealt with the Muslim rumors,
the Post essentially hands over the article to Obamas right-wing
detractors and gives them an open shot to claim whatever they want.
The Post wrote: An early rumor about Obama's faith came from Insight,
a conservative online magazine. The Insight article said Obama had
~spent at least four years in a so-called madrassa, or Muslim seminary,
in Indonesia. It attributed this detail to background information the
Clinton campaign had been collecting.
After Obama denied the rumor, Jeffrey Kuhner, Insight's editor, said
Obama's ~concealment and deception was to be the issue, not so much his
Muslim heritage, and he suggested that the source of the madrassa
rumor was the Clinton campaign. The Clinton campaign denied the charge.
Amazingly, however, the Post makes no effort to evaluate the validity
of this right-wing accusation, even though it was investigated at the
time and debunked.
As CNN re****ted on Jan. 22, the Indonesian school that Obama attended
as a child was not a religious madrassah where sometimes extreme forms
of Islam are taught, but a well-kept public school in an
upper-middle-class neighborhood of Jakarta.
The boys and girls wear school uniforms and are taught a typical school
curriculum today as they were 39 years ago when Obama was a student
there while living with his mother in Indonesia, re****ted CNN
correspondent John Vause.
Though most of the schools students are Muslim " Indonesia is a Muslim
country, after all " Vause re****ted that the religious views of other
students are respected and that Christian children at the school are
taught that Jesus is the son of God. [For details, see
Consortiumnews.coms Rev. Moons Anti-Obama Agit-Prop.]
Rather than critique this and other anti-Obama rumors, however, the
Post does little more than catalogue them. For instance, it cites an
article in Human Events that dubs Obama potentially our first Muslim
President.
The Post also notes how these rumors have circulated on the Internet
and on right-wing talk radio, pushed by hosts Michael Savage and Rush
Limbaugh, who acknowledges getting confused between Obama and Osama
bin Laden. Some right-wing talkers, the Post adds, make a point of
inserting Obamas middle name, Hussein.
Internet Slurs
Still, not content to stick with the slurs circulating within the more
established right-wing media, the Post dives toward the bottom of the
barrel, citing anonymous e-mails, such as one posted at Obamas own
campaign blog by a supposed sup****ter who wrote about the Right's
strategy:
"The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the U.S. from the inside
out. ] What better way to start than at the highest level, through the
President of the United States, one of their own!"
The Post then cites an e-mail from another Web site that claimed "Obama
takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim" and that
"since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when you are
seeking political office in the United States, Obama joined the United
Church of Christ to help purge any notion that he is still a Muslim."
In journalism, news organizations are often forced to make difficult
decisions about when to ignore spurious charges and when they must be
addressed. There is the old adage attributed to Lyndon Johnson that you
should call your opponent a pigf----r and make him deny it in public.
The press often has let itself be used in such dirty tricks, sometimes
because of sloppy journalism and other times because the news outlets
are owned by friends or allies of a rival political candidate.
But the journalistic balancing act is even more delicate when dealing
with something as personal as religious faith, especially in the
context of widespread public prejudice. In such a case, news
organizations should demonstrate extraordinary care, a sensitivity
almost totally lacking in the Posts front-page article.
What is perhaps most astoni****ng about the Posts article is that it
doesnt insist on proof from right-wing operatives and talk-show hosts
about the rumors they are spreading. Nor does it cite contrary
information thats already in the public domain, such as CNNs re****t
on the madrassa question.
The Post simply recycles the slurs, buys into the bigotry and " in
doing so " makes them part of the mainstream debate.
[Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the
Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The
Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his
sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com.]
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