The Internet's New Alternate Reality 869
Hugh Pickens writes "Tim Rutten writes in the LA Times that when President Obama released his long form birth certificate last week, one of the striking things about the reaction to the president's calm and — to reasonable minds — entirely persuasive appearance in the White House briefing room Wednesday was the rapidity and ease with which so many leading birthers rejected the evidence he presented. 'Until very recently, if every professional news organization in the nation examined a charge and found it baseless, it was — for all intents and purposes — dropped,' writes Rutten. 'Today, the growth of the Internet has drained the noun "news" of its former authority. If you don't like the facts presented on the sites of established news organizations, you simply keep clicking until you find one whose "facts" accord with your beliefs.'"
Birthers still unconvinced Obama white enough (Score:5, Funny)
KENYA, Indonesia, Wednesday (WorldNetDaily) — Barack Obama's alleged long-form birth certificate has been declared fraudulent by the noble and patriotic "Birther" movement, who claim firm evidence [newstechnica.com] that the President is insufficiently white.
"I've seen a few Photoshops in my time," said immigrant Birther and world's oldest emo kid Orly Taitz. "I can tell from a few of the pixels. They're nowhere near light enough."
Donald Trump, the next Sarah Palin, takes credit for provoking the release of this initial documentation of the mysterious Obama, and has now asked if Obama's college transcript is all that, and something about basketball as the President's favourite pastime. Betting pools are now forming on when Trump will allude to watermelon and fried chicken.
Birthers are routinely outraged at suggestions that blatant racism is at the heart of their disquiet with Obama's landslide victory in the 2008 presidential election. So it's really worth saying it to them, every time.
The Birther movement was originally started by Party Unity My Ass, a group of disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters during the 2008 Democratic primary. They note that Obama has, on his track record so far, been a first-class Republican president.
Surprising? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Surprising? (Score:5, Funny)
"People believe any quote they read on the internet if it fits their preconceived notions." - Martin Luther King
Re:Surprising? (Score:5, Funny)
People will believe any old tripe if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Re:Surprising? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Irony? (Score:5, Funny)
easy mistake to make.
Re:The trust died when it became "The Media" (Score:0, Funny)
I agree this issue was mostly the news media and BHO's fault.
Given BHO's gaps in history and pictures of him with his Asian step father in ASIA, the mind can quickly wander to alternative thoughts.
This issue could have been taken care of simply and quickly years ago.
Now for the media and BHO to stand there and say, "my you are silly" is weak at best.
For a media that knew every bar that GWB had a drink at the examination that BHO has had is pale in comparison.
As George S (former White House Aide to WJC) on ABC news has said, "we can't find anybody who knew him at Columbia".
If the media wants respect, they need to step up and be the critical eye and thought they are getting paid for and stop being flaks.
This is not a Fox News problem.
Re:Irony? (Score:5, Funny)
It's a typo. It should in fact read "s/news/opinion/;
That's what she sed.
Re:What evidence would the birthers accept? (Score:3, Funny)
If they could travel back in time to witness Obama's birth (backed up by satellite imaging to make sure their apparent Hawaiian environment isn't an elaborate sound stage in Kenya) and collect baby Obama's DNA, they'd come back to the future and report that...
Today's Obama is a clone of the baby Obama born in Hawaii, and he was cloned in Kenya.