Fox News’ Inevitable, Full-On Birther Embrace
March 29, 2011 8:57 am ET by Eric Boehlert
Finally, the birther stars are aligned.
Donald Trump is mounting a furious media tour on the conspiracy’s behalf. Fox News is doing its best to prop up the fringe scheme, and dedicated birther detective Jerome Corsi is rolling out a new ad campaign in advance of his new birther book.
Busy fighting the last war, key segments of right-wing media, with a major assist from Fox News, have gone full-on birther, selling the zombie conspiracy that refuses to die.
And this isn’t Birther Lite, the noxious brand of nonsense Mike Huckabee got caught promoting this month. That’s the slightly less offensive, but equally sweeping, attack on the president that concedes Obama was born in the United States, but he’s nonetheless foreign, or foreign influenced, to the point of having un-American worldview.
Instead, what Fox News is now sponsoring is straight-up, Obama-wasn’t-born-in-America nonsense. That, despite the fact that birtherism was previously, and accurately, condemned by conservative pundits who insisted the fuzzy pursuit made their side look nutty. (“To any sane human being, there is no controversy.")
But now, increasingly desperate for rhetorical ammunition to hit Obama with, more and more outlets are cheering the birther comeback; a comeback that reveals more about bankrupt Obama-haters than it does the current president and that says more about a right-wing media movement that feels comfortable wallowing in easily disprovable, half-baked falsehoods than it does about the supposedly malignant target, Obama.
Why birtherism now, when so many media conservatives warned against elevating the dopey conspiracy? Easy. The cupboard was bare. The GOP Noise Machine has grown so ferocious in its appetite and so committed to feeding its loyal followers a never-ending diet of Obama-hating rhetoric and attacks, that it was just a matter of time before birtherism was served up, unapologetically, as an entry. It’s simply the latest serving, the latest offering, from the Obama-hating menu. Meaning, the short-term satisfaction of wallowing in the dark conspiracy about Obama’s possible African past won out over any common sense objections.
Remember, this is a movement that, despite a weekly avalanche of relentless attacks against the president, hasn’t been able to move the needle on Obama’s approval rating in nearly 18 months. (CBS News poll, Dec., 2009, 49 percent; CBS News poll, March, 2011, 49 percent.) Constantly foraging for juicy attacks has become a paramount pursuit.
Obviously, the recent emergence of Trump in his loudmouth role as birther conduit –as birther minstreamer—is driving the latest boomlet. (Lou Dobbs once had that conduit job for CNN; it didn’t work out.) What’s telling is the degree to which Trump has been hailed as a right-wing hero in recent days, and the degree to which Fox News won’t stop hyping Trump’s’ attacks. It simply illustrates how birtherism never really died (despite previous predictions to the country.) It’s just been waiting for another resurrection. And this time, Fox News decided to go all in and lend its corporate support to the burned-out, backward looking conspiracy.
Two years ago, with Bill O’Reilly out front condemning the birther allegations as “bogus,” and Glenn Beck on the radiodenouncing birthers as “idiots” from the “fringe elements,” it would have been inconceivable for Fox News to endorse the hackneyed conspiracy as energetically, and overtly, as it has in the last week. (Fox’s previous birther cheerleading was more of the dip-the-toe-and-even-ankle variety, albeit repeatedly.)
Yet behold, today it’s full-on birtherism for all to see.
Doocy: Birth Certificate Produced By Obama's Campaign "Is Not The Exact Birth Certificate"
"Where's The Birth Certificate?" Fox's Kilmeade Hosts Obama Conspiracist Jack Cashill
Hannity Says It's "Not True" That Obama Has Shown His Birth Certificate
Broken Record: Hannity Asks, "Why Can't They Just Release The Birth Certificate?"
Note the truly baffling timing of this Return of the Birther production. The Middle East is grappling with generational change, Japan is still struggling with seismic devastation, and the United States just helped launch military action against Libya. Yet against that backdrop, Fox News has decided that the dead-and-buried ‘news’ about Barack Obama’s birth certificate deserves ongoing, primetime attention, and that every bungled, recycled claim Trump makes about Obama’s birther certificate now passes as news.
That’s the focus?
What’s also telling, in terms of the complete bankruptcy on display, is that (surprise!) there is no news driving the birther comeback. Trump certainly hasn’t uncovered any new information. Despite his hollow assertion on Fox that “all of a sudden, lot of facts are emerging,” the current resurgence simply revolves around the fact that Trump is going on TV and saying, in a very 2007 kind of way, ‘Show us the birth certificate.’ That’s it. That’s the so-called angle now in play and being hyped by Fox News and other far-right media sources: Trump mentioned birtherism on TV!
The fact that right-wing bloggers consider Trump’s embrace of birtherism to be a P.R. coup for the cause is just sad (he’s a“bold new voice”!) and shows how out of touch they are with mainstream America. Seriously, pretending TV egomaniac Donald Trumps speaks for the Silent Majority and he’s finally summoned the courage to say what so many other anxious voters wished they had?
Please.
And talk about fighting the last war! If Americans didn’t think Obama was born in the United States or if they thought he was foreign and not like you and me, they wouldn’t have voted him into office in an electoral landslide. Meaning, this birther nonsense was already brought up and American voters overwhelmingly rejected it.
So the logical Fox New response three years after the electoral landslide when birtherism was utterly ignored?
Resurrect it.
I know I am probably leaving out 50 other issues, but I am at work and haven't a lot of time.
The right wing is totally bereft of viable candidates for President so I guess this is a preview of how the 2012 campaign will look. Really, really pathetic...
Where is NBC/ Comcast.....
What's the difference now is that Donald Trump has proven himself to be a 100% U.S.D.A. RACIST ! Since he hates Blacks, we won't give him any more Green.
What's the difference now is that Donald Trump has proven himself to be a 100% U.S.D.A. RACIST ! Since he hates Blacks, we won't give him any more Green.
Pla-ese. Let them speak. This is after all, the on-going Fox Network 2012 Presidential Primary. Is this really paying-off for Fox?
My real question is, "How much longer are the billionaires willing to continue to finance this Republicant Party money black-hole?"
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
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Anyone see the "birth certificate" Trump showed? The only identifying information on the certificate was "The Jamaica Hospital" and "Born to Mr. & Mrs Fred Trump"--way less than what Obama's says. Come on. This movement is pathetic.
" Because GE paying no taxes isn't enough; we've got to start cranking up taxes on poor people and giving the money directly TO our corporate overlords."
Grow up and live in the real world, already.
Sweet. Let's take the country back to the 1800's.
A time when men were men and women knew their place.
A time of those wonderous humanitarians, the Robber Barons.
That was such a better time in the history of America.
If you are so worried about them, then let those next generations have access to affordable healthcare.
Do the young children have to be working to have a chance to be healthy?
You sir, could give a damn about the kids and grandchildren of most of the population of the USA.
And WE dont need anymore than the evidence of your post to know what a pitiful brainwashed minion you are. The pathetic talking point filled post of yours shows that you are incredibly stupid and too brainwashed to be communicated with. I could go through them one by one and destroy them AGAIN but its boring since I have already done so a few dozen times. I am tired of you astonishingly STUPID cretins spewing out the classic rock of pitiful talking points long ago shown to be spurious and without a shred of validity.
I am tired of you soulless Randinistas ignoring reality and repeating endlessly the stupidity you were brainwashed with
GE paid no taxes and in fact received $3.2 billion in favorable tax treatment.
Wall Street trashed the economy, stayed out of jail, kept their jobs, and paid themselves bonuses with taxpayer money.
Despite record profits, Exxon Mobil got $4 billion dollars in tax breaks and subsidies last year.
2010 was the most profitable year for US corporations EVER.
How much more capitalist friendly can we get? Grind the poor into fuel for limousines?
Pure capitalism died at the end of the Cold War along with Soviet style communism.It never really existed anyway. There were never "free markets". The markets are always slanted infavour of specific sectors or corporations. Capitalism can not survive without being propt up by governments. Ask Milton Friedman and his failed markets in the 1980s.
The most successful countries right now are a hybrids of socialism and "capitalism -mitigez" or regulated capitalism.
The economy is there for the citizens, not the other way around. The economy is simply a tool for citizens. Allowing corporations and lobbyists to run the country puts us where we are now. We live in a democratic/constitutional republic. We do not live in a capitalist country. The economy is simply an aspect of our country.
But you want a return to the Gilded age. We don't need child labour laws...we don't need worker protection..we don't need environmental regulation. Corporations are benevolent beings...they would never package toxic loans and try to sell them to their own customers and clients.
Irishpat,you are a stellar example of movement conservativism. Maybe you should go back and look for some provos or some orangemen.
Besides, they don't need this birther nonsense anyways. There are plenty of avenues to attack Obama.
Sorry, but obviously, they do. If they had something better, they would have used it by now. They can't use the race issue, that would be loudly scorned. The thug dictator isn't working because he has always appealed to the center and appeased the Right. There hasn't been a credible link to other women, and the tabuloid links to other men don't get past the grocery store checkout lines. He admitted his drug use. The only things working for him are the Muslim issue and the Birth Certificate, without them, you've got bupkis.
What kind of in depth analysis did you want to be debunked in a post with no substance to it?
Actually, they attack him for a cartoon caricature of his politics- you know, calling him a "radical socialist" for doing most of the same things their Untarnishable Idol Reagan did.
There, fixed it for you Mags.
Are you kidding? you dimwit
Then why aren't they?
Watch a Mark Levin show sometime. What a Michael Medved show sometime.
Instead of getting your information from Fox/hate talk radio, try reading and doing your own research. These folks have a purpose and agenda . . . inform yourself, Mag. Read and form your OWN opinions instead of parroting the opinions these overpaid entertainers, many of whom have very limited educations, tell you that you should have.
MagCynic,
"There are plenty of avenues to attack Obama."
None of which have anything to do with policy, ideas, or issues. Just ineffectual attacks against the man and his family.
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
.
The majority of conservative media attacks Obama based on his policies and political beliefs.
Were you this vocal when Bush and his family were the target of personal attacks? Or did they deserve it?
MagCynic,
To keep this reply down to a reasonable size, it is easier to name all the Republicant Party RW hate talkers who have not attacked Mr Obama and family:
Ema Nymton
~@:o?
.
This must be the beginning of the Opposites.
No one attacked the Bush Family. The intelligent, honest people did correctly attack Stupid Junior's politics,and apparent hatred for Americans.
But no one attacked his family. That is Heritage Foundation nonsense
So why don't they USE those other avenues? Why are they going back to Birtherism-indeed, doubling down on it? Why is Fox devoting so much airtime to it? When even your hero Beck has dismissed it as a "crazy conspiracy theory"(?!), why are they treating it as if it's a subject worthy of serious discussion?
What valid reason is there for an self- proclaimed "news network" to devote more time to this completely debunked non-story than they do to major world events?
Really? If that's true, then why are they wasting their energy on this "birther nonsense"? It would seem to me that they are expending an inordinate amount of energy on something that is ridiculous. Why not use that energy on one of those other "avenues"?
Faulty logic, Mag.
Then why do 51% of registered repulicans think he was not born in the USA and another 21% aren't sure?
And that's probably why you don't see any of it mentioned on this site.
Grover norquist keeps saying Reagan, won teh cold War, reduced the debt and the deficit. the truth is, he did none of these things.
Some others are mentioning it like they dismissing it, but then they say " But you know...Obama is not like us". It is not stated but it is implied.
It is a classic propaganda technique. Deny first,,,then state. Your audience listens to the first part....but only "hears" or mentally registers the second part.
-I'm not saying Obama is a terrorist...but he is sympathtic to them.
-I'm not saying Obama is a racist..but he has a deep seated hatred for white culture.
-I'm not saying Obama is the devil, but in this picture he sure looks demonic.
-I'm not saying Obama is not anAmerican, but he doesn't think like us.
Then there are the actual "direct claims"
-" Obama is not like us...he grew up in Madrassas"
-" Obama is a racist"
-" Obama might be possessed by teh ghost of his fathers anti-colonialism"
The idea is to perpetuate the myth that President Obama is not like "Us". They never say what "us" is. The idea is the LISTENER uses his own preconceived idea of " Us". This means the listener think President Obama is not like"me" or "my group".
Bitherism is a blatant use of this concept. It is repeated, never really denied, then it is reinforced with the propaganda mentioned above. It creates a " Us vs him" mentality.
They do need this, because they have to deflect the truth that movement conservativism is how we ended up where we are. They don't want to break the "message" because then people would look at the false memes and realize the radical movement conservatives are really "regressives".
They are what Emberto Eco would call" Traditional Fascists" or classic fascists.
so yeah...they do need to you use this myth.