CNN heavily promoted an "exclusive" last night with stories by John Vause and Howard Kurtz rebutting an Insight magazine article on Barack Obama’s Indonesian schooling, that it occurred in a "madrassa," with the on-screen graphic "DEBUNKING A SMEAR." Conservatives shouldn't defend journalism from conservative media outlets if the story doesn't stand up -- if it carries a lot of shaky anonymous sourcing and can easily and passionately be portrayed by liberal media outlets as a "smear." Insight's story seems underbaked, not ready to face prime-time liberals like last night's fusillade from Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper and Paula Zahn, who brought on CAIR, not Obama, for outrage over "Islamophobia."
The sad thing here is that Democratic candidates (and the Democrat-dominated media) will follow the usual Clinton formula: they'll push outrage at unsubstantiated charges, and then not really press the candidate about the issues raised. Obama's Illinois church and religious beliefs (and his former lack of religious beliefs) are very interesting topics. Like everything about Obama, they need more investigation from the media and less exaltation. But the media will quickly suggest (and have suggested) that Obama's exotic upbringing makes him more qualified to understand the world. He has certainly pushed that line. Take this AFP wire story where race-transcending Obama touted to the reporter that he was "greatly influenced" by his Asian sojourn:
When he was six years old, Obama's mother moved him to Indonesia for several years, which he said, left a lasting imprint on him during his formative years.
"It was very powerful. I had an Indonesian stepfather. I went to an Indonesian-speaking school," Obama, a first-term US senator representing the Midwest state of Illinois, said in an interview.
"It gave me an enormous appreciation for the magnificent culture and history of Asia. It gave me a great love for the people of Asia," said Obama, who had returned to his native state of Hawaii by the age of 10...
The son of a black Kenyan father and a white American mother from the US heartland state of Kansas, Obama identifies himself as African-American and is seen by most Americans as such.
But supporters say he also is a multicultural figure who transcends race, thanks in part to a childhood spent in Hawaii, where he was born, and Indonesia.
Obama said that his Asia sojourn gave him a greater awareness of Washington's global power, and its huge impact on average people around the world.
"It made me appreciate the role that the United States can play for good and for ill in improving the economies and conditions for people around the world," he told AFP.
Indonesia's ambassador to Washington Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat told AFP that he hopes Obama's Indonesia childhood has made a "positive contribution" to relations between the two nations, given "the office that Senator Barack Obama holds, and the leadership he enjoys."
He added that the senator "possesses a large amount of wisdom, the strength of which plays a dominant role in shaping his perception of the international world."
Obama in 2005 sponsored US Senate legislation to increase America's preparedness for an avian flu pandemic -- a subject of personal interest in large part because of his firsthand experience of Asia.
"That was an area where my knowledge of Indonesia and its landscape and how poultry farming is done there probably triggered a better sense for me of how much of a threat it can be over the long term," Obama said.
While Howard Kurtz was graceful enough to acknowledge the obvious gooey media coverage Obama has generally attracted in his CNN report, it's a bit jarring to see Washington Times-punishing journalism from a reporter for The Washington Post, not just CNN. Insight's a long-standing project of the Washington Times Company.
And never forget: Obama benefited far more from sleazy journalism (remember the Chicago Tribune knocked his Republican opponent Jack Ryan out of the '04 race by poring over his divorce papers for salacious allegations) than he's suffered from it.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center















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"But the media will quic
January 23, 2007 - 15:13 ET by Gothampc"But the media will quickly suggest (and have suggested) that Obama's exotic upbringing makes him more qualified to understand the world."
Much like Kofi Anan's exotic upbringing qualified him to understand the world. Unfortunately, he couldn't (wouldn't?) do anything about the world he understood.
Barack Obama Education
January 24, 2007 - 07:30 ET by PShannonUpdate on Obama's education begins in paragraph 10.
Barack Hussein Obama was a Muslim for almost 25 years and is a master at shaping his own mythology.
In Obama's famous 2004 DNC Convention speech, he said ""My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father -- my grandfather -- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British."In fact, Obama's grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama was a prominent and wealthy farmer from Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya. He was part of the British colonial system, owned a large ranch and was one of the first Muslim converts in his village. His son, Barack (changed from Baraka, an Arabic word meaning blessed) Hussein Obama Sr. was a child of privilege, not privation. He was an outstanding student, not a herdsman.
Like other children of privilege, Obama's father was a person with access to the highest levels of government in Kenya and as a result of those connections was able to come to America to study in 1958 at the age of twenty-three.
His scholarship, to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was organized by a former Kenyan cabinet minister, the late Tom Mboya, who was earmarked as Jomo Kenyatta's successor. Kenyatta, president of the Kenya African Union and the country's leading nationalist leader, was charged with managing the Mau Mau terrorist society in Kenya and sentenced to seven years hard labor along with five others.
The senior Obama married a fellow student, eighteen year old Shirley Ann (Anna) Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. A self-professed atheist, Dunham was an anthropology student. Obama Jr. was born on August 4th, 1961, in Honolulu.
Two years later, the senior Obama divorced Dunham according to Sharia law and returned to Kenya the same year that Kenyatta took control as the first prime minister of a self-governing Kenya (June 1963). He became an economist and a powerful member of Kenyatta's government which was one of the most corrupt regimes in Africa. The Mau Mau was finally banned by the Kenyan government in August 2003 (one year before Obama's DNC speech).
Was Obama lying when he said, "My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation," in his famous speech? After all, his father abandoned him to return to the secret shame of Kenyatta's history of rape, murder and arson."
Obama's father died in a driving accident in 1982, leaving three wives, six sons and a daughter.
Obama's mother remarried. Again, she chose another Muslim, Lolo Soetoro Ma, who worked as an official of the Director General's office in the TNI Topography division of the Indonesian Army. Soetoro took Dunham and Obama to Indonesia, the most densely populated Islamic country in the world.An American Expat in Southeast Asia reports that according to Maya Soetoro, Obama's stepbrother and son of Lolo and Anna, Obama lived in Jakarta, Indonesia for five years, from 1968-1973.
Obama's early schooling began when he was entered into the Roman Catholic, Franciscan Asisi Primary School on 1 January 1968 and sat in class 1B. He was registered under the name Barry Soetoro, serial number 203. School documents listed Barry Soetoro as an Indonesian citizen and his religion was listed as Islam.
Barry attended the Asisi Primary School for three years until class three. When his family moved from H Ramir Street to Dempo Street, he attended the Besuki Primary School, a government school, for one year.
A government primary school in Indonesia is not quite as secular as one in the west might imagine. In fact, Islam plays a very important role in Indonesian schools and a foreigner might be surprised to find out that religious classes are compulsory for all Indonesian students.
All Indonesian students are required to study religion at school and a young Barry Soetoro, being a Muslim, would have been required to study Islam daily in school. He would have been taught to read and write Arabic, to recite his prayers properly, to read and recite from the Quran and to study the laws of Islam.
Classmate Rony Amir describes young Barry as enjoying playing football and marbles and of being a very devout Muslim. Amir said, "Barry was previously quite religious in Islam. His birth father, Barack Hussein Obama was a Muslim economist from Kenya ... all of the relatives of Barry's father were very devout Muslims"
"We previously often asked him to the prayer room close to the house. If he was wearing a sarong he looked funny," said Rony.
Obama Barack Hussein might not have attended an Indonesian madrassa as some have claimed but forthcoming evidence will show that he has not been completely forthcoming on his Muslim heritage and upbringing.
When his mother divorced her second Muslim husband, Dunham sent Obama to live with his maternal grandmother in Honolulu. The teenager lived with his grandparents -- "white folk," as he describes them -- and attended the prestigious Punahou School, the school of Hawaii's royalty. Dunham remained in Indonesia.
In his book, "Dreams from My Father," Obama wrote of his mother, “She was a lonely witness for secular humanism, a soldier for the New Deal and the Peace Corps.” In his book, "The Audacity of Hope," (pp 202-203), Obama wrote that she was “always too rational and too stubborn to accept anything she couldn’t see, feel, touch or count." She was the quintessential secular humanist, he told Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter and Daren Briscoe.
Julia Suryakusuma, the author of Sex, Power and Nation, says that Ann was one of her closest friends from 1981 until her death of ovarian cancer in 1995. Suryakusuma, wrote in the Jakarta Post, "Ann was an anthropologist. Her doctorate research was on cottage industries in Java and she had a deep love for this country." In a later paragraph, she writes, "I think she would also see Berry (Dunham's nickname for Obama) as a great inspiration for Indonesia, her (Dunham) adopted home."Obama then studied for two years at Occidental College in California before transferring to Columbia College, the undergraduate division of Columbia University, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations and graduated in 1983. Obama then worked for Business International from January 1984 to January 1985. After that he worked as a community organizer at a Chicago housing project. It was during his time spent there that Obama joined the Trinity United Church of Christ (UCC). Oprah Winfrey and Howard Dean are also members of the UCC and on October 29, 2006, Dallas's Cathedral of Hope, known as the “world’s largest gay church,” was accepted into the UCC.
Trinity has a non-negotiable commitment to Africa, is committed to the historical education of African people in diaspora and committed to liberation, restoration, and economic parity.
At the UCC General Synod in 2005, the denomination adopted a resolution calling for “equal marriage rights for all” – regardless of gender. This includes homosexuals and transgendered individuals.
Trinity is very anti-Israel and supports divestment. It is also unique among UCC churches nationwide in its black value system which requires commitment to the black community and family, adherence to the "black work ethic" and disavowal of the pursuit of "middleclassness." It also states members must make a pledge to gift the black community with members’ learned skills and personal resources. They also must pledge allegiance to "all black leadership who espouse and embrace the black value system."
Note: To appreciate the racism of the Black Value System, read its 12 precepts and covenantal statements (link above) , substituting the word white for black. Additionally, item 8, "Disavowal of the Pursuit of 'Middleclassness'" is kind of an interesting concept. I've Googled the phrase and can find no description of its meaning. Could it mean that Trinity wants African-Americans to remain poor and indebted to the Democratic Party?
The question needs to be asked, was Obama's conversion faith-based or political expediency? In either case, Muslims view Obama as first a Muslim and as an apostate Muslim, he faces the death penalty in nearly the entire Islamic world.
There is no dispute among either ancient or modern Muslim scholars that under Islamic law, a murtadd, “one who turns his back on Islam,” an apostate, must be put to death. Irtidad, apostasy, is committing treason against God, and traitors deserve to be killed. At a minimum, other Muslims would shun him if not kill him and his mother. The fact they are eagerly welcomed by the Muslim community begs the question, is he their 'Manchurian' candidate?
At a minimum, Obama should be asked if he will support the efforts of Christian missionaries in Islamic countries to peacefully convert Muslims to Christianity.
In his 1995 memoir, "Dreams from My Father," Obama admits to using marijuana and cocaine.
On "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" Obama was asked by Leno about taking drugs. Said Leno, "Remember, Senator, you are under oath. Did you inhale?" Replied Obama, "That was the point." In his book, Obama excuses his drug use as "reflective of the struggles and confusion of a teenage boy; teenage boys are frequently confused.”
Even more incriminating than the fact that Obama inhaled and admits to "maybe a little blow," Obama is a cigarette smoker, actually, a chain smoker. That's more than a just a little substance abuse. The question begs asking, how much of a striver can he be if he's also a smoker? It was sort of disappointing to read a recent interview in which Mr. Obama claimed to have quit except for the occasional lapse.
Obama has become the Senate's point man on ethics and now says he will no longer accept rides on corporate jets. This after having accepted 23 such flights, some to attend his own fundraisers, in 2005 alone. He joined only a handful of Democrats in voting against a Senate reform banning the widespread practice of legislators hiring their family members on their campaign or PAC payrolls. He does, after all have a very activist wife.
Ethical questions also surround Obama's shady real estate deal and relationship with indicted political fundraiser and Arab-American activist Tony Rezko, who befriended Obama during his Harvard days.
Obama bought a $1.65 million dollar mansion at a gigantic discounted price, some $300,000 less than the asking price. The same day, Rezko's wife bought the adjoining lot, paying the full $625,000 asking price. The Rezko involvement invited a second question for Obama: did Rezko's wife in effect subsidized Obama's purchase of the opulent home and also provided an abutting private preserve that adds to its ambience? The lot isn't accessible from the public street but can be reached from Obama's property.
Pretty good for a guy earning $165,200 per and who once ran his credit cards up so high that the credit card company denied him access to further use of his card.
His political history in Illinois shows that Obama has proven himself to be a nearly perfect leftist dhimmicrat. He supports homosexual marriage, racial preferences, gun control, flag-burning, socialized medicine and the absolute right to abortion, including partial-birth abortions. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive.
He is anti-war, voted against the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, against privatizing Social Security and opposes the death penalty, three strikes laws and school vouchers. He has no military service record.
He believes in the separation of church and state -- except when he campaigns in black churches.
He loves Jimmy Carter and is the 18th most liberal member of the Senate, receiving a 100% rating from Americans for Democratic Action, NARAL Pro -Choice America, National Organization for Women, the NAACP and the National Education Association.
Some may say that this backgrounder is biased. However, perception is everything in politics and both Ted Kennedy and CNN (Cable News Network) have mistakenly referred to Obama as Osama (as in ben Laden).
I just don't believe America will ever elect an uber-liberal, apostate Muslim and self-admitted drug user to the Office of the President of the United States.
What really scares me, though, is that I could be wrong.
Thanks PShannon
January 24, 2007 - 08:05 ET by SportPoliticsThanks PShannon, I see at CNN, they make a whole large page of it claiming his Indonesian school was not a Madrassa, but leave the bigger question absolutely out.
Was Obama raised a muslim as a child, and as your info shares, did he read the Koran and do the Mecca kneeling and praying, and if so, in the school or not,( CNN avoids that entirely, merely mentioning it is a "multiple religion school" - without giving percentages or stating no Koran/religious training/ reading was done during school hours - That REALLY pisses me off, because you know they asked....and found out - so they're HIDING THAT INFORMATION)
CNN is having it's Obama love in while it slams Fox, Insight, the NYpost, and anything republican, and of course let's Obama off the hook entirely. Gosh I'm PISSSED. BLATANT BS covered up in a fancy dancy report to make it look like it is thoroughly researched and debunked.
WHAT a load of crap !!!!
Oh yes, so important CNN physically sent a "correspondent" there. So, did he ask CNN, or did you RETARDS find out if Allahbama O Hussein was raised MUSLIM ?
OF COURSE NOW YOU'VE CONVINCED ME BY NOT SAYING IT CNN- THAT YOU ARE COVERING UP FOR OBAMA ! TED TURNER SUCKS, AND HOGS USA LAND.
The depths of deciept are amazing.
Calming down... ok so what we have here is the meaining of the word "is", only in this case, the word is MADRASSA.
Thanks for that whole page where we know it isn't a MADRASSA CNN, but still don't know what Obama was trained up to be !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
God you people at CNN SUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.
obama scares me. he is a no
January 23, 2007 - 15:15 ET by buddycobama scares me. he is a nothing. he has accomplished nothing. he has no substance. his financial misdeeds show a total lack of discretion and common sense. his educational and religious background concerns me. he really does look like the manchurian candidate.
Aggressivly defending Bush
January 23, 2007 - 15:19 ET by Gary HallAggressivly defending Bush..
But will the media come out and defend the Bush administration from the orchastrated Joe Wilson smear attacks... a rhetorical querry at best.
That MSM full frontal attack on Dan Rather and CBS's "60 Minutes" for their extended effort in attempting to discredit President Bush for his National Guard Service, especially using the forged documents to make Rather's case [personal vendetta] - oh, did I miss that one too?
Tim, I watched that spot yesterday also. The vigor of CNN's effort to jump on that one is simply.. well telling.
Fair
January 23, 2007 - 15:27 ET by iveseenitallDidn't see the report. But I'll bet it was fair. Both sides of the argument fairly presented. No taking sides. Liberal "sensitivity" all the way. Yeah, right. And I agree with buddyc, something smells fishy here with this guy Osama and the MSM.
NEVER,NEVER trust a liberal
I wish folks at Insight had l
January 23, 2007 - 15:22 ET by Chris NormanI wish folks at Insight had left the story in the oven a little longer. This is the kind of thing that feeds into the MSM-created myth that there are right-wing hit squads out there. Not that a completely accurate article would have drawn any praise or admiration from Obama's groupies in the MSM...
The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.
- Arabian Proverb
I don't think it took very
January 23, 2007 - 15:28 ET by sarcasmoI don't think it took very much "poring," in that divorce case. (I still can't imagine divorcing the woman who played "Seven of Nine," or as I call her, 36 of D! I'd want her in her "Borg" makeup all the time, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to divorce her, much less take her to any "sex clubs," so the Republican candidate -- to me at least -- sounds like a bit of a weirdo!!!) Anyway, in politics nasty divorces are a hazard. I guess it's a pity the candidate field wasn't deeper in that race, but such are the fruits of ballot access restrictions. BTW, at this point smart Republicans and Hillary et al are probably all fighting for the Ryan campaign's old opposition research files!
JMR
My point, Sarc, is that Obama
January 23, 2007 - 17:19 ET by Tim GrahamMy point, Sarc, is that Obama was a beneficiary of "mainstream" media sex-sleuthing. He ended up coasting against Alan Keyes, and no one reminds anyone of that.
As for your Star Trek fantasies, TMI.
Well here's more "smear&
January 23, 2007 - 15:56 ET by Mr. KafirWell here's more "smear" issues:
This is the most disgusting candidate of our current election cycle.
Why is Hussein Obama in the
January 24, 2007 - 08:19 ET by DontFeedTheTrollsWhy is Hussein Obama in the black congressional caucus if he has a white mother?
Because he is denying his heritage. That is, the heritage that might hurt his chances at duping the American public into electing him President.
Why does Hussein Obama let CAIR defend him, if he, as he claims, is not a moslem?
Because he is a moslem, first, last and always.
DSG
Want your elected reps to know what you think? Go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/, it's real easy.
I hate to complain Tim Graham
January 24, 2007 - 07:47 ET by SportPoliticsedit: Ok, I see it in the provided update paragraph 10 ... and have surfed to that website...
I hate to complain Tim Graham, but I still don't know what "Indonesian school" type Obama attended, and still don't know if he was ever a Muslim, or was being brought up by the several father figures to be one. ( as the mother's atheism is made apparent and tends to indicate she would not likely try to make him a muslim)
So, the "debunking" must go on.
With all this hullabaloo, who can actually get the facts to me ?
( shutting up and surfing to Obama website and CNN, and Zahn's, to find if anyone has actually discovered and willingly laid bare the facts. I know, maybe it's all he said but noone really knows for sure. Is Obama taking a position, or pulling a John F'in Kerry ? )
ps_ Now I can perhaps go see how CNN spun it all to Obama's favor.
Tim Graham
January 24, 2007 - 08:23 ET by SportPoliticsTim Graham, while rereading your lead I note Obama's " former lack of religious beliefs".
Now, as I understand how the denial, deception, and coverup political industry works( read that as the Barak Obama bubble with Blitzer and CNN as the accomplice ), the "former lack of religious beliefs" equates directly to " I HUSSEIN OBAMA was raised in Indonesia at the non-Madrassa school to tote the Koran about everyday, pray on the mats toward Mecca, and basically be a Muslim, but of course I lacked the belief and was merely an abused child". ( that never bought that hokey Islam)
Now, how can I possibly come to another conclusion ?
Can anyone help me here ? Isn't it obvious by this thread that I need some help ? Boy the answer had better come out, or I'm headed over to rap with ThoughtPolice.