The Epitome Of Bad Journalism

By TIM KILLEEN

Yesterday, The Post & Email, "an electronic newspaper," ran a story once again calling into question the place of Pres. Obama's birth. While stories like this have circulated ad nauseum during and after the 2008 election, The Post & Email presents new "evidence" of Pres. Obama's African birth. What is that evidence, you ask?

An online newspaper based in Tanzania is reporting that “Barack Abdallah Husein Obama,” the “first black US president,” was born outside of the United States.

Written in broken English, the article notes that the President of the United States has historically been required to be born on U.S. soil but that “This might have been the result of racism or belief that a person other than ‘original’ US citizen was capable of effectively leading the powerful nation and help it to maintain its values.”

The writers go on to say that “We witnessed last year a senator with his origins from east Africa, Barack Abdallah Husein Obama, becoming the first black US president. He won the race on Democrat ticket and was sworn on January 20, 2009 as US president.”

Of course, The Post & Email, as a legitimate news organization, followed up on with the "online newspaper based in Tanzania" on its sources for the claims. In response, the Editor of The Post & Email got this response:

Dear Editor,
What our writers in the story you refer to meant to highlight is Barack Obama’s ancestry. There is no doubt that the President’s father, Barack Obama Sr, was a Kenyan, who went to study in the United States and met his mother at university. Surely, the people in the US, the most sophisticated country on earth, have all the research capability to put these rubbish claims to rest. President Obama was born in Hawaii. Isn’t that part of the US? To us in Africa, the increasing lies about Mr Obama’s birthplace are proof of the racism that is so ingrained in American society. Why don’t you send a team to Kenya to scour the records in the birth registry in Nairobi and Kisumu to see if there is any shred of evidence that Barack Obama Jr was born in Kenya? You have made great scientific breakthroughs, including landing a man on the moon, confirming that President Obama was, indeed, born in the US shouldn’t be that difficult.

However, despite the fact that The Citizen (the Tanzanian "online newspaper") wrote that it, in no way, claimed that Pres. Obama was born in Africa, readers at the less-than-logical freerepublic.com jumped all over the story, noting:

Well if that’s not proof enough for you I just don’t know what is.

If he’s constitutionally ineligible, then any law he signed is invalid, including Healthcare and the stimulu packages.

“Barack Abdallah Husein Obama” All that is left is to tack “Muhammad” on to it. That would just be the cherry on the cake of my day.

Given the choice between the "Mainstream Media" and "newspapers" like The Post & Email, I think I might stick with the former.