Skip to content
Apr 28 / thomas.krafft

My opinion on whole "birther" issue

Just one day after President Obama decided to authorize Hawaiian officials to make a special exception on releasing his long form birth certificate, I’m having a difficult time finding any mention of it on Google News, or any of the major news outlets.

So here’s my opinion on the whole “birther” affair:

  • Ignorant, stupid, malicious people tried for two and a half years to distract the public from real issues.
  • In spite of all evidence that our president is actually a citizen, these morons just wouldn’t stop filling the news with blog posts and editorial promoting their twisted and perverse agenda.
  • The national media have done a terrible disservice to the American public.
  • There’s not enough “good” bloggers and news people out there to counter the sensationalism and sizzle of whacky conspiracy theories.

Just a note to anyone wanting to get into journalism, and who runs any major news outlet: Your job is to inform and educate. People have fought and died so that you could write and report news freely in this country – with the assumption being that you will tell the truth, promote the truth, and tear the knee-caps out from anyone who seeks to manipulate the public by ignorant or intent.

The fact that you gave 2.5 years to a clearly lunatic fringe conspiracy theory and all its big name Republican and Tea Party whacko supporters, and can’t even take 24 hours to put any of those people’s feet to the fire, effectively makes a mockery of every sacrifice that has ever been made for the notion of a free press. Having a free press does not mean you are free to report whatever you want, or only those things that might generate the highest ratings. After 2.5 years, you’ve seen what that has done to our national and public debate around serious issues, and the efforts of good people to move our country forward.

There shouldn’t be a single person left serving the public interest, who at any point actually supported this whole “birther” movement. Not one.

But the fact that those people will remain in power, and remain unchallenged by you, makes you complicit in their efforts to tear apart this nation, and move it backward.

Shame on you. You have dishonored the nation and the lives of all who came before you.