BREAKTHROUGH ON ELIGIBILITY STORY / Exclusive: Joseph Farah shakes head at Breitbart apology for breaking ´birther´ story (WND-WORLD NET DAILY COMMENTARY) by JOSEPH FARAH 05/18/12)
Source: http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/breakthrough-on-eligibility-story/
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Congratulations to Breitbart.com for reporting a story the site
clearly didn’t care to publish.
It seems that in 1991, Barack Obama was indeed representing himself
to his literary agency as “born in Kenya, raised in Indonesia and
Hawaii.”
This documented revelation is one more of many smoking guns that
expose Obama’s tendency to revise his personal narrative as a matter
of convenience and for personal advantage.
The question is: Was he lying then or now?
But this development illustrates something else – why such a huge
story of constitutional import could be neglected so badly by
practically everyone in the media for four years.
I knew the late Andrew Breitbart well. He hated the eligibility
story. He personally condemned me for chasing it relentlessly. We
fought about it – even famously in a recorded debate in which I made
it the cornerstone of my speech at the Tea Party Convention a couple
years ago.
“It’s not a winning issue,” insisted Breitbart.
I explained that, as a journalist, pursuing the truth is all that
matters. And if you fail to pursue the truth, everyone loses.
Ironically, Breitbart.com editors were still reticent about
publishing this blockbuster for fear of being labeled “birthers.”
Here is the unprecedented and self-conscious preface to their
story: “Note from Senior Management: Andrew Breitbart was never
a ‘Birther,’ and Breitbart News is a site that has never advocated
the narrative of ‘Birtherism.’ In fact, Andrew believed, as we do,
that President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August
4, 1961. Yet Andrew also believed that the complicit mainstream media
had refused to examine President Obama’s ideological past, or the
carefully crafted persona he and his advisers had constructed for
him. It is for that reason that we launched ‘The Vetting,’ an ongoing
series in which we explore the ideological background of President
Obama (and other presidential candidates) – not to re-litigate 2008,
but because ideas and actions have consequences. It is also in that
spirit that we discovered, and now present, the booklet described
below – one that includes a marketing pitch for a forthcoming book by
a then-young, otherwise unknown former president of the Harvard Law
Review. It is evidence – not of the president’s foreign origin, but
that Barack Obama’s public persona has perhaps been presented
differently at different times.”
Amazing! Even in discovering the truth that two decades ago Obama was
proclaiming himself as foreign born, Breitbart.com insists this is
not evidence that he might actually be foreign born.
Rather, the editors suggest, it’s just evidence of the fact that he
tells different stories about his life.
I’m not sure there is such a thing as a “birther” narrative, as
Breitbart.com suggests. But I am certain there is an “anti-birther”
narrative that infects most of the media – Bretibart.com included.
What’s wrong with just reporting the facts – even if they contradict
your preconceptions? Why the excuses and rationalizations for
publishing this breathtaking finding?
Most of the media, Breitbart.com included, decided long ago, this was
a story that was not worth covering – even while WND pursued it
aggressively. The rest of the media put its feet in concrete and
denied there were any more legitimate questions about Obama’s
constitutional eligibility – Breitbart.com included.
So how does one break such devastating news when you find Obama
previously described himself as “Kenyan-born”?
You do it by distancing yourself from some imaginary “birther”
narrative and determining for your audience what it really means –
Obama didn’t tell the truth to his literary agent.
Talk about burying the lead!
Now do you understand why the Big Media are so afraid of this story?
Even the so-called alternative news media, having discovered
indisputable evidence Obama portrayed himself as foreign born,
chooses to explain it away as just a youthful, non-truthful
indiscretion.
There’s no question Obama has been untruthful. But there is plenty of
doubt in my mind about when. He was either lying then or he has been
lying since 2008.
I would suggest he had much more to gain or lose in 2008 than he did
in 1991. (© 2012 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. 05/18/12)
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