Why is this Birther Issue getting so much attention from the media, now?

[FrenchieCat]

Just seems like the corporate media didn't entertain the extreme fringes rumors in reference to other Presidents, like who killed Vince Foster and who was and wasn't a Lesbian and such.
I might read about that in the National Enquirer, but it wasn't thrusted into my face.

So why is this issue becoming so prevalent as discussion in the public domain now?

Since it ain't true, why are so many Blow Dried talking heads discussing it as though
there is something to even debate.

Is this a good thing?

I know they did the same thing about Obama being a Muslin during the election?
Did the media grabbing on to that issue help or hurt?

What are your thoughts on this? cause personally I had been ignoring this dumb shit....up to now.
cause now it seems like it is becoming harder to ignore considering that I am seeing and reading about this on every corporate channels there is.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Otherwise they would have to report how the wrong-wing is trying

their best to foil health care for the working & under class.

[Lorax7844]

18. k and r

[quakerboy]

2. Its a slow week

Ain't anyone died yet, and there ain't anything their corporate masters want them shining any spotlights on happening at the moment.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

20. The RW have to distract the public from wanting a decent healthcare system

[WCGreen]

3. To sowly discredit Obama....

Either that or they are starting to follow Fox's lead and think if it works for them...

[Clio the Leo]

4. look on the bright side.....

.... it further isolates and alienates the GOP for being the party of whack jobs.

[FrenchieCat]

5. Well, that's why I was asking....whether it hurts or helps....

I can't tell from where I sit.

Seems like there are many folks who may not have had a clue about this RW "conspiracy Plot" till now,
and I'm wondering what they are thinking about this....and how that will affect their trust in
this President.

[Clio the Leo]

10. I think the average citizen is smart enough to realize it's hoo ha....

.... I've been going round and round with some Freeper friends of mine as to whether not the President is single handedly destroying America ..... and while they can pull out the GOP Youtubes left and right, and can spout right wing talking points with the best of them .... not exactly brainiacs this bunch .... they have YET to bring this up.

Rachel made the counter argument that has ALWAYS been the best one, if there were any legitimacy to this notion, Hillary or McCain would have pursued it.

Those who believe it, dont like Obama, never have and never will ..... but MOST folks are more worried about paying their light bill.

[jberryhill]

15. Identifying The GOP With Birthers Hurts The GOP

I'm convinced of that.

It is a loud & crazy minority of the GOP that makes them look like loons.

Find the most rightwing person you know in the real world and ask them about the birth certificate. Odds are they'll tell you "that's crazy stuff".

Every GOP Senator and Congressman has to explain to his/her constituents why they are not impeaching Obama over this - and they become traitors to their own putative supporters.

[Mike Daniels]

30. Hell, every show I've seen on MSNBC has basically said these people are nuts

I think the video of Castle under fire from the crowd in Deleware for defending Obama is what finally pushed it to the forefront.

Matthews and Scarborough put the birth document on camera while basically calling the birthers "freaks." Both of them even mentioned the birth announcement in the paper.

Matthews challenged a Republican senator to denounce the birthers and Scarborough wasn't defending them either (going so far to say that the party needs more candidates like Castle if they want to get the majority back). David Shuster was fronting "Countdown" and I can't remember if he threw the certificate on screen but he denounced the birthers as well.


The media's covering it now because the video exposes these people as total whackadoos and no host on MSNBC (as far as I've seen) has tried to spin these nuts as anything other than as completely "off the deep-end."

[Cha]

7. That is definetly the

bright side. There's no hope for corporatemedia..wasn't meredith viera grilling Pres Obama about his "jeans" on the Today Show?

[TheKentuckian]

6. They lack even basic creativity and are tasked with distraction of the masses?

It's a honestly a tough job. I'd hate to have absolutely nothing but have to make a case 24/7. I'd focus on "Octo-mom" for six weeks too.

[Mrs. Overall]

8. I think it's less about Obama and more about the radical right wing fringe

that is fucking nuts.

I think what's coming out about The Family and their crazy Christian fundamentalism is also partly feeding this. We have a portion of this country that is racist, illogical, fearful, and volatile. It's about time the mainstream media begins to cover this, in my opinion. These people are nuts and dangerous.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. It's the constant pressure from the wingnuts, and...

wingnut "news" outlets keeping the story alive. I doubt many real reporters or editors really want to follow this any more.

Go to any paper, radio or TV station or other media and see the amount of press releases, tips, and stories they get on a given day, and then ask how they decide what to cover. Most don't have an agenda, but when a story sonmehow becomes viral, like constant twittering and angry bloggers, viewers and subscribers demanding they "get to the bottom of it" they have to satisfy the demand.

As long as Worldnut, Drudge, Hannity, and the rest of them keep yakking on about it with no regard for the truth, it will still be popping up as news.

And asshole military officers trying to use it as a justification for their own actions sure doesn't help keep it out of the news.

[FrenchieCat]

11. So perhaps if we applied our own pressure, perhaps

we can get what we want covered by the talking headassholes?
Cause if that's the case, it would seem that we need to be a bit more forceful
with this media we've got.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. So, who's our NewsMax? Where's our organization?

[FrenchieCat]

16. Well, until we stop bickering with each other about every little aspect of everything,

organizing ain't gonna be easy.

Seems like we actually prefer arguing with each other
than uniting against the common enemy.

[jberryhill]

17. Hey...

We're Democrats.

That's what we do.

[TreasonousBastard]

29. Heh. They have it easy-- while we...

are out there putting ourselves on the line trying to actively improve things, and fighting over the best ways while dealing with political realities, they just rely on things staying the way they are and saying everything will end up OK. Political realities work in their favor, with their simplistic and easy to swallow message.

So it goes, and I'm happy when we get anything done at all.

[billyoc]

12. Well, they shouted down a U.S. Congressman, a Republican, no less, to yell about it.

Also, that nut is introducing a bill in the House regarding it.

Even by real standards of journalism(long dead now), that would make it newsworthy this week.

Personally, I hope it never dies down, it's tearing the GOP apart, with no effect whatsoever on the Democrats or the Obama Administration.

[Beaverhausen]

13. Follow the money...it's about the ratings

always was, always will be.

[Historic NY]

19. I guess they don't believe the Mormons either...they would have found something.

When doing his genealogical survey.

[SpartanDem]

21. I think it's largely been a good thing

these nuts are being exposed and the GOPers who've been feeding these people under the rader with the crap like the birther bill are being called out.

[justiceischeap]

27. I concur

If anyone is really paying attention, which is negotiable, they'll see that the Repuke party seems to be losing control of its constituents.

What amazes me about the whole damn thing is do these wing nuts really believe that the Repuke party would have allowed Obama to take the Oath if he weren't a natural born US citizen? Do they truly believe that the party the got a President "elected" via the Supreme Court, the party that paid handsomely to try to keep Al Franken from taking his rightful place in the Senate would allow a Kenyan-born citizen to become President?

The fact that more and more Repukes are jumping on this bandwagon shows how nutso their party has become. Between C Street, the Birthers, Health Care, Sotomayer inspired racism, it all keeps piling up that if you associate with the Repuke party at this time in history you will now be associated with the fringe that seems to be taking over the party.

Let them rail on, in my opinion, let them dig the hole deeper. The more they open their mouths and cavort with the fringe, the more irrelevant they become.

[jbnow]

22. The media picked it up now because of that court case

which is a big reason why crazy lawyer and military guy went for the court case. Most of their many lawsuits are ignored but a case that is someone saying he refuses order to go to war because of it, that gets attention. Of course that was a set up...he volunteered to go after Obama was already president and volunteers can just request it be rescinded, they don't have to go to court. He did it just to go to court.

Then having that crazy republican town hall caught on tape. A lot of them were birthers, they must have gotten together and planned to demand answers, can't believe that many of a group of republicans would believe it...but who knows.

Not to say the media isn't working against him...they are utterly disrespectful compared to how they treated bush.
Even how they treat health care...they just bring up the criticisms, talk about him getting weaker, show approval for "his plan" falling. (His plan? We haven't heard his plan since the campaign) Do they look at the bigger picture...the real people loosing everything to bankruptcy due to medical problems. Those whose insurance is pulled when they get sick? Having a serious illness with no insurance? The thousands of desperate people who show up when those doctors come for a few days to provide free care....the doctors who use to go to just 3rd world countries?
Why do they not respond to the crap about rotten government care that kills people in other countries...which is first of all a lie and second that single payer is not even an option for us. Why don't they automatically bring up Medicare as a government plan. Why don't they point out how we are near last in all health measures among developed countries...we die sooner and get sick earlier and our babies die much more often...

and so on.

I know this isn't a birther issue...but it is a press being stupid issue, looking for problems...and not the real problems but the ones that weaken the president...that are just political blather.

[WeDidIt]

23. 10 GOP Congressmen have sponsored Birfer legislation

That made it mainstream.

That gave Limbaugh and HAnnity license to go after it, thinking it would hurt Obama.

It's actually helpful as we saw on HArdball last night. This is a wedge issue. Every Republican who runs for Congress next year will be asked about the Birfers and will either have to throw the Birfers under the bus or don the tinfoil hat of conspiracy theory as there is no middle ground on the issue. You're either sane, in which case the Birfers hate you, or you are batshit insane, in which case everybody except the Birfers want nothing to do with you.

[Orsino]

24. Health care.

It's about resisting health care reform, or any other agenda item that might ease us to the left.

[scheming daemons]

25. To. Kill. Health. Care. Reform.

and in a larger sense... to kill Obama's agenda as a whole.

That's what this is about.

[cali]

26. bingo.

absolutely spot on.

[AspenRose]

32. They want to "break" him.

In every aspect.

[Medusa]

34. His approval ratings are down, now is the time to pounce

and pouncing they are. That's what they do. And of course instead of debunking this the media plays along.

[Mike Daniels]

37. Huh? MSNBC has been calling out the birthers since the Castle video hit the airwaves

Both Hardball and Countdown slammed the story and Morning Joe went so far as to show the certificate on air and mentioned the birth announcement from the paper. Joe pretty much called the birthers "paranoid freaks" numerous times during the segment.

Hardly playing along if you ask me especially if you factor in Matthew's and Scarborough's comments regarding the "controversy."

[JimGinPA]

28. Republican Noise Machine...

The media is their bitch.

[slackmaster]

31. I don't know, but since Sarah Palin threads have been almost Unrec'd to oblivion

I'm going to start Unrecing every "birther" thread today. I think they are getting way more attention than they deserve.

K&U

:kick:

[Arkansas Granny]

33. I'm still ignoring this dumb shit. IMHO, the corporate channels need something

to "balance" all the scandals coming out about Republicans right now and this is the only tidbit they can come up with on Obama that will hold the interest of their viewing audience. And if one network is discussing it, they all have to discuss it so it won't look like they are not lagging behind their competitors.

[pipi_k]

35. It's the only hope they have right now to boost ratings...

Seeing as there's a noticeable shortage of missing white girls, deadly shark attacks, and slow speed car chases to report on.

[Prism]

36. Because people continue giving the story oxygen

It isn't only the right who keep the story going. Every day I log on to DU, I see multiple threads about it. When I read through liberal/progressive blogs for the day's stories, I see birther stories.

If everyone's talking about it, right and left alike, then it follows the MSM and others are going to start picking it up. More and more journalists use blog aggregators and feeds to find the "buzz" online and tailor their coverage to draw in that audience. They want to feel relevant. When birtherism is consistently in the top ten topics, offline journalists are going to start highlighting it.

The issue should have been left to the fringe instead of legitimized. The more people talk about something, the more people are going to feel it's a valid topic for debate.

The military court case didn't help, and these lunatic congressmen are pandering to the right-wing blogosphere with the misguided notion it will somehow translate into grassroots support for their political ambitions down the road.

But it's like Palin. How can I miss her if people won't let her go away?

[Vinca]

38. I'm happy they're featuring the wingnuts in the MSM.

Show America what the Republican Party really is . . . insane.

[Mike Daniels]

39. I'm a little surprised over the "concern" about the media focus on the birthers

The video finally gave a visual as to what these people are like and the overall reception from even Republican commentators (not politicians) is that these people are "a few bricks shy of a load".

Unfortunately, the Republican politicians are showing that they value votes over principle because it's their base making these accusations. Failing to give their base a reality check may help them sort term but it will blow back on them an a competitive election situation.

Simply, anyone with more common sense than a brick would acknowledge that if this was "valid" Clinton and then McCain would have been all over it during the primaries and campaign. That they weren't should be all the evidence anyone needs that the claim is without merit.

[BlueIdaho]

40. Racism.

Reporting on these goofy fuckers still forwards the narrative that the President not one of us, not worthy, and by extension not white enough to be President. The same goes for the tea baggers - this is all just racism with a nudge and a wink.

[jenmito]

41. It must be because Repubs. in congress have a bill about needing to show one's BC before running for

president to prove they're eligible (caving to their crazy RW constituents). AND they showed nut cases harassing a moderate Repub. in a town hall he was holding. I think this is a GOOD thing. The anchors/commentators are ridiculing these "crazy RWers" and talking about how it's hurting/dividing the Repub. party. Even Scarborough said these people are ridiculous. Chris Matthews held up Obama's BC for all to see, THs on MSNBC and CNN have discredited these people and torn apart the "true believers."