Talk about blaming the victim. On his radio show this morning, Glenn Beck claimed that President Obama is “the biggest birther” because Obama is the one who keeps bringing up the issue. Beck specifically cited Obama's statement during the interview with NBC News Brian Williams broadcast yesterday, “I can't spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.” Beck commented, “nobody was asking you the question about that.”

This just isn't true. From the August 30 edition of NBC's Nightly News (via Nexis):

WILLIAMS: Mr. President, you're an American-born Christian.

Pres. OBAMA: Mm-hmm.

BRIAN WILLIAMS: And yet increasing and now significant numbers of Americans in polls, upwards of a fifth of respondents, are claiming you are neither. A fifth of the people just about believe you're a Muslim. Is...

Pres. OBAMA: Keep in mind those two things, American-born and Muslim, are not the same, so...

WILLIAMS: But the...

Pres. OBAMA: But I understand your point.

WILLIAMS: Either or the latter...

Pres. OBAMA: Right.

WILLIAMS: And that most recent number is the latter. This has to be troubling to you. This is, of course, all new territory for an American president.

Pres. OBAMA: Well, look, the facts are the facts. Right? And so we went through some of this during the campaign. You know, there is a mechanism, a network of misinformation that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly. We dealt with this when I was first running for the US Senate. We dealt with it when we were first running for the presidency. There were those who said I couldn't win as US senator because I had a funny name and people would be too unfamiliar with me. And yet we ended up winning that Senate seat in Illinois because I trusted in the American people's capacity to get beyond all this nonsense. And so I will always put my money on the American people, and I'm not going to be worrying too much about whatever rumors are floating on--out there. If I spend all my time chasing after that, then I wouldn't get much done.

WILLIAMS: Even a number as sizable as this. What does it say to you? Does it say anything to you about your communications or the effectiveness of your opponents to...

Pres. OBAMA: Well, look, Brian. I would say that I can't spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead, right? It--I--it is what--the facts are the facts. And so it's not something that I can, I think, spend all my time worrying about, and I don't think the American people want me to spend all my time worrying about it.

President Obama was very explicitly asked by Brian Williams for his reaction to the issue, he didn't just bring it up out of the blue as Beck alleges. It's even more ironic that Beck made up this premise just days after saying that “America is crying out for the truth.”

Furthermore, why is the issue of Obama's citizenship even in the news? Why have the amount of people who falsely believe President Obama is a Muslim increased? Beck needs to look no further than his cohorts in right-wing media, who have consistently promoted all manner of conspiracy theories about Obama's faith and background.

Obama didn't initiate the question, but answered what he was asked. The reason the question was even out there was thanks in large part to conservative disinformation. But Beck blamed Obama, in his latest conspiracy theory. Naturally.