Tulsa World editorial's lie about "birther" issue shows failure to understand this issue

Tulsa World offers the editorial "The 'birthers'/Don't encourage them, senator" (link) about recent comments from Oklahoma senator Jim Inhofe in which he apparently said, "I believe those people who are concerned about his birth certificate, about whether he is a citizen and qualified, I encourage them to do that."

As with others in the "anti-birther movement", Tulsa World can't get their facts straight and are lying to their readers. Not only do they smear all those who are referred to as "Birthers" as "conspiracy theorists" who are like those who are "Kennedy conspiracy adherents" (?!), but they also lie when they say:

the state of Hawaii has verified his 1961 birth certificate

That's not true. Their recent statement only said he that was born there. They didn't, for instance, verify that what's shown on his site matches what they have on file. They didn't verify that the other information shown on the picture on his site matches what they have on file.

To some that might seem like a small difference, but it indicates that Tulsa World doesn't really understand this issue and hasn't, for instance, looked at what those officials have actually said. If they won't look at what those officials have said or don't understand what they've said, and they can't get the facts straight when dealing with a topic like this, then their opinions should be taken with a large grain of salt.

Note also, of course, that the editorial is being linked to by others who've lied about this issue: Ben Smith (politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0709/Birther_sympathizers_take_flack_locally.html) and Dave Weigel (washingtonindependent.com/53211/tulsa-newspaper-slams-jim-inhofe-on-birthers).

Thu, 07/30/2009 - 12:03 · · Importance: 4