News Agency Scrambles To Revert Story Back To Hawaii
Drew Zahn, WND — In an article published online Friday, Rachel Rose Hartman of Yahoo! News lamented that President Obama’s upcoming trip to Africa would not include a stop in Kenya, “the country of his birth.”Whoa. What?
The mainstream media for years has been lockstep behind the president in affirming his birth in Hawaii, even derisively labeling those who question the official story as “birthers.”
And in fact, Talking Points Memo reports that within 90 minutes of the story’s publication, Yahoo! News added the following: “Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the president’s birthplace.”
The wording of the story was then changed from referencing Kenya as “the country of his birth” to “his ancestral homeland.”
A screenshot of the original article (emphasis added) can be seen below:
A screenshot of the amended article can also be seen below:
Hartman’s article spoke of the Obama family’s upcoming visit to Africa, which is expected to take place from June 26-July 3, and planned stops in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.
Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, however, told reporters Kenya wasn’t on the itinerary.
So was Hartman’s reporting that Obama was born in Kenya a slip-up or a sign of something more?
The answer may be impossible to discover. A spokesperson for Yahoo! News told the Washington Post there would be no comments available beyond the correction.
Social media monitor Twitchy, however, noted that many users of Twitter were quick to assume Hartman a “birther” and blasted her as racist while demanding she be fired.
Curiously, before Obama was elected, it was fairly common to find references in the media that referred to the former Illinois senator as born in Kenya.
The Kenyan government, as well, in 2009 commissioned a cultural museum in Kenya to “honour the birthplace of President Obama.”
Even Obama’s own literary agency billed him as “born in Kenya” as late as 2007 to promote the sale of his book, “Dreams from My Father.”
And while the White House released a purported copy of Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate April 27, 2011, the president’s refusal to release his childhood and college records, coupled with charges that the birth certificate is a forgery, as well as Barack Obama Sr.’s status as a foreign national, have led many so-called “birthers” to continue to question Obama’s birthplace and/or eligibility under the U.S. Constitution to serve as president.
Discover the most extensive archive of news reports on Obama’s eligibility anywhere!
As WND has reported, a special Cold Case Posse assembled by Maricopa, Ariz., County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was even assembled to look into the question at the request of Arpaio’s constituents, who were concerned they were being defrauded by having an ineligible candidate on the 2012 election ballot.
Last year, Arpaio held a press conference at which he and Cold Case Posse Chief Mike Zullo outlined their findings.
In an affidavit, since filed with the Alabama Supreme Court, Zullo explained, “At that time, we announced that we had concluded that there was probable cause that forgery and fraud had been committed in respect of two documents: 1) the long-form or original birth certificate computer image presented by Mr. Obama, which contained multiple errors and anomalies, many of them serious and: 2) the selective-service document for Mr. Obama, which contained a two-digit year-stamp. This was contrary to specifications issued by federal regulations to the effect that the year of issue should be expressed as four digits on the stamp, and also contrary to any other selective-service registration document that we had been able to examine.”
The result of the evidence, he said, is one conclusion.
“Accordingly, Sheriff Arpaio continues to recommend that the Congress of the United States open an immediate investigation, including the appointment of a select committee, as regards to the authenticity of Mr. Obama’s documentation, whether any crimes have been committed, and to determine Mr. Obama’s eligibility for the office of president of the United States,” he said.
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Related Article:
» Obama’S $100 Million Family Trip To Africa (Courtesy of Taxpayers) Under Fire Amid Sequester Cuts
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About the Author
Drew Zahn is a former pastor who cut his editing teeth as a member of the award-winning staff of Leadership, Christianity Today's professional journal for church leaders. He is the editor of seven books, including Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, which sparked his ongoing love affair with film and his weekly WND column, "Popcorn and a (world)view."
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