Saturday, December 27, 2008

Disinformation

I want to caution people about putting too much stock in assorted rumors about the Obama Eligibility Controversy. Not only do we have the effect of misunderstandings, and mistakes, and Chinese Whispers, but we have active efforts by Obama supporters, and even reportedly paid Obama operatives spreading disinformation on the internet.

For example, we have seen widespread planting of false stories. Remember Wild Bill's fake VA lawsuit?

What about Obama's grandmother's death? Looks like that story might have been at least partially fake as well.

Of course, the Certificate(s) of Live Birth that were released appear to be fakes or at least altered in various ways: [1][2].

What about the statements that claimed that the Hawaiian Health Department had confirmed that Obama was born in Hawaii? They were all incorrect; more fakes.

What about the "glorious stories" in the mainstream press about how Obama is the most popular president ever already, and that his presidency will be one of peace and universal harmony and love? (paraphrasing slightly, and only being slightly sarcastic). These claims were supposedly based on some polls showing that as many as four out of five Americans strongly support Obama and even most McCain supporters are switching over to support Obama.

When I looked into these stories carefully, again they turned out to be supported by nothing more than misrepresentations and exaggerations. The mainstream media reported the survey results very selectively, if nothing else. And the samples that were surveyed appear to be quite small and not at all representative.

What about the statements which were widespread in the mainstream media that World News Daily had hired experts to examine the birth certificate and had declared that the Obama birth certificate was geniune and that therefore Obama was born in Hawaii? These stories were also fake.

Therefore, I have strong suspicions about many other stories in the media about Barack Obama. It is only reasonable, after encountering a few false statements, lies and exaggerations, to be a bit skeptical. Particularly when Obama refuses to release his records and even spends a considerable amount of time and money fighting to prevent their release in court.

With minimal effort I have presented not one, not two, not three, but six examples of "fake" stories in the mainstream media. These stories are not minor but any means, but major stories. Sometimes repeated thousands upon thousands of times for months and months on end.

In many if not most of these cases, the public believes the "fake" stories. After all, why wouldn't they? They have heard them over and over and over. Or read them over and over and over. Even most of our politicians believe them for the same reason (see some responses of congressmen and senators here). Probably most of our judiciary also believe the fake stories.

Why does the public believe these "fake" stories? It is pretty simple actually, and quite reasonable and expected. There have been no retractions in the mainstream media. No "exposés". No special reports. No inquiries. No pointed questions at press conferences. No big announcements in the mainstream press or on mainstream radio or television that these widely reported stories are fake, phoney, misleading or hoaxes. Even our proud conservative media, including conservative talk radio, has been silent for the most part. Our alternative press has not carried much information about the Obama eligibility controversy except in a couple of belated instances of a supermarket tabloid running a story long after the election. Our "investigative journalists" have not investigated. They haven't even bothered to read the filed lawsuits, even though they have been publicly available for months now. The main figures in the Obama Eligibility Controversy Movement have had very few interviews in the mainstream press. The main opposing political party has not uttered a word about this. Almost no political leaders have brought any attention to this situation.

It takes effort to actually research this issue, and there is a lot of contradictory information to weigh. It is confusing and frustrating. It takes a lot of time and effort and most people do not have the resources or the patience to do this. So what else would you expect? Is there any wonder that this movement is treated as a fringe group consisting of a few nuts wearing tin foil hats?

Why do I believe that there is some substance to the Obama Eligibility Controversy? After all, I am highly skeptical of claims of other conspiracies. I enjoy debunking conspiracy theories. There is one big reason that I always return to; there is no other good reason for Obama to resist the release of his original birth documentation for week after week, month after month, in court case after court case, to the tune of many thousands of dollars. This leads to a loss of good will, and is done at the increasing cost of his credibility. The longer this goes on, the more he is hurt by it. Why would he hurt himself and his public image and his presidency on purpose?

It just is beyond any rational belief that a reasonable person would resist showing the personal papers that most citizens are required to show at least several times in their lives. The claims of "privacy" ring hollow since Obama has already supposedly shown a "valid" certificate of live birth. Has Obama not already given up his privacy in this situation? And why should privacy be a valid reason, when Obama is seeking a government position? "Privacy" is not accepted as an excuse in other circumstances when citizens are required to present their documents. Of course, there are also all kinds of other legal arguments about why a public figure has no expectation of privacy.

Obama could even show his documents to some authorities and forensic document experts in some secure closed setting and have a court seal the documents afterwords and only release a report containing a summary of the information of interest, if there is other embarassing material contained in the documents. This sort of thing is done all the time, after all. In this way, Obama can probably satisfy the constitutional eligibility requirements without releasing any other potentially embarassing information, as long as his documents state what Obama claims they do.

As I think about this situation, I would not be surprised if there have been dozens if not hundreds of similar "fake" stories that were planted, either by willful action, or appeared in the mainstream media because the journalists were biased or careless or did not have the time and resources to check on their stories. We have had armies of Obama supporters on blogs and in forums and other places on the internet spewing disinformation. I even recall a story in the mainstream media in which it was suggested that Obama had hired many hundreds of operatives to counter anti-Obama information on the internet (you can see some discussion of the Obama internet strategy at the following links: [3][4][5][6][7]).

Now I have even heard a rumor that hackers have altered some online versions of the Kenyan grandmother recording!

The very fact that such things are going on shows the Obama supporters were and are desperate and these very actions can be used eventually to discredit them. It is very very ugly. But the evidence of bad behavior by Obamites is everywhere. And uniquely damning.

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