Obama’s Madrasa Story Still Bouncing Around Fox News

Just when you thought the Obama smear we told you about a few days ago had been laid to rest, it seems the battle lines have been drawn over the story and the jaws of the conservative media will not be wrested from the allegation that Hillary Clinton’s campaign discovered that Barack Obama spent over four years in an Indonesian madrasa.

The article bears all the hallmarks of a Rovian media ploy: release a vicious, bogus rumor about a candidate and then source it to another rival, ensuring that the damage is equally distributed. News Corp properties in particular seem to be hammering away at Obama at every opportunity (NewsHounds has more).

There are several defenses being made by the smear’s champions in the media:

1. Insight Magazine itself is refusing to issue a correction, saying that their story was about Hilary Clinton’s researchers allegations and that Insight magazine did not allege Obama had gone to a Madrasa at all. Insight stands by their unnamed sources that this was entirely the work of Senator Clinton’s team:

We at Insight commend CNN for at least showing the initiative to follow-up on the story and send a correspondent to check it out. But, contrary to their claims, CNN didn’t debunk anything about our story. For the record, Insight never—not once—in its article claims that Obama went to a Madrassa. We didn’t claim it; Hillary’s people did. We reported—and we fully stand by our story—that the Hillary Clinton camp had conducted their own opposition research on Obama’s Muslim past, and that the Clinton investigators had concluded Obama had attended a Madrassa. This is what Hillary’s camp was saying and desperately trying to prove—not Insight. Our sources also confirmed to us that the Clinton camp had come to the conclusion that not only had Obama been raised and educated as a Muslim, but that he had been deliberately concealing it. Moreover, our sources also said that Clinton’s people were seeking to find out about the possible radical Wahhabi angle, and then peddle their information to their media allies later this year—prior to the January 2008 primaries.

Some other outlets will probably try to use th same line of reasoning to resist making any further apologies, saying that they were only reporting on the reporting of a claim made by Clinton’s researchers. Thus one chain of plausible deniability is constructed.

2: Insight’s non-correction also contains this gem:

As for CNN’s investigation into Obama’s Muslim school, we are not yet convinced. To simply take the word of a deputy headmaster about what was the religious curriculum of a school 35 years ago does not satisfy our standards for aggressive investigative reporting. The State Department portrays Indonesia as a hot bed of radical Islamist activity. Christians and non-Muslims face persecution on a daily basis. CNN’s claim that Obama attended a multi-confessional, secular public school needs verification by other news outlets—such as FOX News—who will look the facts straight on, without a vested ideological interest in downplaying Obama’s Muslim heritage.

3. Some go even further than Insight’s coy questioning, namely the vautedly objective Fox News, where Think Progress caught John Gibson accusing CNN of conspiring with Indonesian terrorists and treating the allegation as fact yesterday:

GIBSON: The whole point of this story last week, and, you know, Blitzer’s just been on their air with some update on this, right?

HOST: Yeah, he sent a reporter out there.

GIBSON: Yeah, cause they got a reporter in Indonesia, probably went to the very madrassa, now works for CNN. But that reporter went out there, and what did they see when they went to the madrassa where Barack Obama went to school?

HOST: Kids playing volleyball.

GIBSON: Playing volleyball, right. They didn’t see them in any terrorist training camps?

HOST: No.

GIBSON: No. Um, but they probably didn’t show them in their little lessons where they’re bobbing their heads and memorizing the Koran.

HOST: I didn’t see any tape of that, no.

GIBSON: No, no, no, you didn’t see that.

4. Grasp at straws. Insight’s non-correction, which at this point is becoming a handy index of apologist arguments, concludes,

The media uproar over our reporting reveals a media establishment choosing not to ask the tough questions about Obama’s Muslim past: If he was raised in a secular household (as he claims), why does he have—or retain—Muslim names, Barack and Hussein? Were his father and stepfather as secular as he says? What is the exact nature of Obama’s current religious affiliation and what are the beliefs and teachings of his current church in Chicago, the Trinity United Church of Christ? Does he adhere to these teachings or is he a Sunday bench warmer only? These kinds of tough questions need to be asked of all presidential candidates regardless of political party. This is the duty of a responsible press. We at Insight do not intend to shirk our responsibility—no matter how often we are attacked.

5. A variation on 4, there are some who point out that (as Juan Cole expertly explains about Arabic) ‘madrasah’ means ’school’ in Arabic, so the Insight story is correct in saying the Obama attended a Muslim elementary school when they called it a madrasah.

Problem is, the language of Indonesia is Indonesian, not Arabic. Outside of arabic-speaking countries, a madrasah is a secondary religious school, not an elementary school.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Quoting ultra conservatives: “What the Hell do facts or reality have to do with anything?”

Hmmmnnnn…… Murdock sponsored a fundraiser for Hillary…..

What’s the big deal? He was how young when this happened? I attended a Baptist church in Jacksonville, FL. Does that make me a Christian terrorist abortion clinic bomber? There are radical fundamentalists in every religion capable of doing things like that. I’ve since given up on all religions and believe we should pick on all of them equally. Next on Weasel news, Zoroastrian terrorists!

Hmmm, so CNN, Fox and Insight at various times thought this was supposed to be newsworthy?

To tie loose ends together as if it’s an earth shattering report is merely squaring the circle-that dog don’t hun’!

I dont trust either news source very much but i would take the word of CNN over FOX NEWS any day.

Kevin, you’re a loser too. Who told you Fox was the most viewed news source, FOX? Wrong

In politics, guilt by association is an effective smear and for a reason. Obama grew up with the Indonesian elite, the same people who are responsible for the modern political climate there; the climate that makes prisoners out of infidels who dare to offer assistance after Tsunamis. Does this make him one of them? No, but in the mind of the common person it create suspicion and the mechanism behind that exists for a good reason. Obama should be glad there are not a lot of pictures of him hugging and kissing Suha Arafat, but it might help his campaign if he dragged out a few of Hillary’s old photos from that affair. This is indeed, the pot calling the kettle…less than polished.

I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links: