Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Here they go, lying again, beating everybody at their favourite game



On Larry King tonight, Media Matters' Paul Waldman wipes the floor with the delusional Jerome Corsi, in the above video.

That's Jerome Corsi, who was the architect of the "Swiftboat" attacks on John Kerry's military record, who has written a crude and offensive "expose" of Barack Obama:
In the preface of his recently released book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, author Jerome 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: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry contains false and baseless attacks on Sen. John Kerry's military service, a Media Matters for America review finds that Obama Nation similarly contains numerous falsehoods about Sen. Barack Obama.

The book includes crap like this:
Corsi baselessly suggests that Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., may have divorced his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, "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 as "Shirley Ann." 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."

Other takedowns include the blockbuster false claim that Obama doesn't mention the birth of his half-sister in his book:
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. Corsi writes:
In the midst of the personal drama being played against the background of this Indonesian turmoil, on August 15, 1970, Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, was born to his mother and stepfather. Obama devotes the entire second chapter of his autobiography to his time in Indonesia, but remarkably, he makes no reference to Maya's birth [Page 48].
In fact, on Page 47 of Dreams, in the chapter discussing his time in Indonesia, Obama writes that "my mother and Lolo would remain cordial through the birth of my sister, Maya."

That's some investigatoritive journamalism.

The frustrating thing is that anyone in the media considers this guy to be an actual journalist. His writing is abysmal, and no one seems to call him on the serious factual errors he passes off as legitimate criticism. It's the old balance game, present both sides as legitimate, let people decide:
Some say moon is made of green cheese, others disagree.
Just because one has an opinion doesn't mean the opinion has any reality basis. I'm just glad we have Media Matters to set the record straight..

Corsi: Bastard.
Trad. media: Bastards.

Thanks, Paul!

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