Barack Obama background whisper campaign and media controversy

A whisper campaign, involving a set of false claims, half-truths, and innuendo AbOUT 2008 U.S. presidential candidate and Illinois Senator Barack Obama's background and loyalties, has circulated since 2004, often through the Internet. Similar unfounded accusations challenging Sen. Obama's own account of his upbringing and religious beliefs, variously attributed to anonymous sources, the campaign of rival presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, or Republican operatives, were disseminated in 2007 by Fox News Channel, CBS News, and The Washington Post. The coverage led to an Expansive Media controversy, including charges that mainstream news outlets had not met their journalistic responsibility to adequately assess or debunk anonymous and unverified claims.

Origins

Although Sen. Barack Obama identifies himself as a Christian, and is a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ, allegations disputing his faith appeared in an August 2004 press release issued during the last months of the 2004 United States Senate election in Illinois. Written by Andy Martin, a candidate for US Senate, Republican nominations for statewide office in both Florida and Illinois, the release falsely claimed that Obama had concealed his family history and the religious influences of his childhood years in Indonesia, a country with a Muslim majority, to maintain political support among Jewish voters. Said Martin, "His Muslim religion would obviously raise serious questions in many Jewish circles." In December 2006, as speculation on Obama's possible 2008 presidential bid was growing, writer Debbie Schlussel posted a column on her website postulating that because his father was born to a Muslim father, people in Arab and Islamic countries would regard Obama as a Muslim, rendering his loyalties to the U.S. suspect. The appearance of a similarly themed chain e-mail, accusing Obama of being a radical Muslim who was educated in a Jakarta Wahhabi school, has been dated to the same month as Schlussel's column.

A second rumor began circulating in October 2007, after a photo in TIME magazine showed Obama standing at a political event without his hand over his heart during the singing of the U.S. national anthem. Adding the middle name passed down to Obama from his paternal grandfather, an anonymous chain e-mail charged that Barack Hussein Obama was not worthy of the office of U.S. Commander-in-Chief. Other e-mails, including one proposing that Obama could be part of a treasonous Muslim conspiracy, have also been reported. In November 2007, the New York Post reported that flyers accusing Obama of being a "Muslim extremist" had been anonymously put on cars in South Carolina, an early U.S. presidential election primary state.

"Madrassa" media controversy

On January 16, 2007, Obama announced the formation of an exploratory committee for his candidacy in the 2008 presidential election. The following day, a web magazine named Insight, owned by the Unification Church's News World Communications, reported that the campaign team responsible for preparing Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid was investigating Obama's "Muslim background." Attributing its findings to anonymous sources "close to the background check," the Insight report referred to the government-run elementary school (SDN Menteng 01) Obama had attended while living in Indonesia between the ages of 6 and 10 as a "Madrassa, or Muslim seminary," and stated that Obama had been "raised as a Muslim" by his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro. Two days later, material from Insight's report appeared in Fox News Channel television broadcasts and in the New York Post.

The Washington Post quoted a response from an Obama spokesperson, who said "the allegations are completely false." A Clinton spokesperson was quoted by the CNN television network as saying the story was "an obvious right-wing hit job," and was also quoted by The New York Times as saying: "In this case both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton were victimized." British newspaper The Times suggested the Insight report "May Be wishful thinking on behalf of Republicans", stating to its readers "The Clinton camp is determined not to be accused of digging dirt on Mr Obama because they fear such tactics could backfire."

CNN correspondent John Vause visited SDN Menteng 01 and interviewed the school's deputy headmaster, as well as one of Obama's former classmates. Vause reported his findings on the January 23, 2007 EDition of CNN's Situation Room newscast:

I came here to Barack Obama's elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some are calling an Islamic madrassa ... like the ones that teach hate and violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I've been to those madrassas in Pakistan ... this school is nothing like that.

The Associated Press visited the school also, and conducted InterViews with the current vice principal, two of Obama's former teachers, and a spokesperson for Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs, concluding that "it's a public and secular institution that has been open to students of all faiths since before the White House hopeful attended in the late 1960s."

A December 2007 Insight column criticized news media discussions of its January article:

We at Insight demand a correction from CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post for their repeated distortions or incomplete recital of our story. The focus in our story in January, 2007 was Hillary’s campaign strategy, not Obama. We were right in our January report about Hillary’s activities, the facts continue to prove us right that Hillary will do all she can to sabotage Obama, and we will ultimately be fully vindicated. Once again, the liberal media will have egg on its face.

Katie Couric on CBS News

On January 25 the Insight story was mentioned on CBS News video blog "Katie Couric's Notebook". Katie Couric read (she does not write her own blog):

Last week, a magazine called Insight printed a story claiming that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was enrolled for "at least four years" in an Indonesian "madrassa," a school that promotes radical Islam... [It was] a false story. Obama was never enrolled in a madrassa. And during the years he lived in Indonesia--with a nonpracticing Christian mother and a nonpracticing Muslim stepfather--he attended two schools, one secular, the other Catholic. In fact, Obama has never been a Muslim... Let's fact-check first and broadcast second.

Although the article in Insight claimed their souces said Obama "spent at least four years in a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary", it also said "the background check has not confirmed that the specific Madrassa Mr. Obama attended was espousing Wahhabism." And the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune stories all reported that Obama's stepfather was a practicing, though not pious, Muslim.

In April 2007, "Katie Couric's Notebook" again mentioned Obama's childhood. Couric cited a Los Angeles Times article which reported that according to childhood acquaintance Zulfan Adi, Obama had "prayed in the mosque." Couric further asked "Is America ready to elect a president who grew up praying in a mosque?" The video was later taken down from CBS's website and the transcript amended with "In a later Chicago Tribune article, however, the source [Adi] said he was not certain whether they prayed together." What the Tribune had actually written suggests that it may have been the regularity, not the occurrence, that was the subject of the uncertainty: "Zulfan Adi, a former neighborhood playmate of Obama's who has been cited in news reports as saying Obama regularly attended Friday prayers with [Obama], told the Tribune he was not certain about that when pressed about his recollections." If Adi ever said Obama "regularly attended Friday prayers" it wasn't quoted in the Baltimore Sun article (carried in the Los Angeles Times), which read "Sometimes, when the muezzin sounded the call to prayer, Lolo and Barry would walk to the makeshift mosque together, Adi said. 'His mother often went to the church, but Barry was Muslim. He went to the mosque,...'" The Tribune article also reported that "Obama occasionally followed his stepfather to the mosque for Friday prayers, a few neighbors said."

Washington Post article

In November 2007, The Washington Post ran a front page story by reporter Perry Bacon Jr. headlined "Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him." The story was soon criticized by Democratic blog sites for recycling previously discredited rumors. Responding to "a swift Internet reaction that left some staffers stunned at its ferocity," Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell noted that "Obama's connections to Islam are slender at best," and criticized Bacon's article for uselessly rehashing old rumors and failing to include "convincing evidence of their falsity."

Involvement of Clinton supporters

The Clinton campaign called for the resignation of two volunteer coordinators in December 2007 following reports that both coordinators had participated in the forwarding of anti-Obama chain emails. A Clinton spokesman said the campaign had no previous knowledge of their coordinators' involvement: "We’ve made it clear to all paid staff and volunteer leaders that the senator and the campaign have a zero tolerance policy for this type of activity," she said.

In December, 2007, shortly after his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, former Senator Bob Kerrey praised Obama for his experience with Muslims, saying "I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal" and, on a separate occasion, "I've watched the blogs try to say that you can't trust him because he spent a little bit of time in a secular madrassa. I feel quite the opposite. I feel it's a tremendous strength..." Kerrey insisted that his intention had been to praise Obama, but media reaction included the observation that he had "stirred the pot", and "create[d] a misleading impression." Kerrey had made a similar comment in October. On December 20, Kerrey wrote an apology to Obama.

Responses by Obama campaign

The New York Times reported in November 2007, on efforts by the Obama campaign to combat misinformation about their candidate, including an open letter signed by three Iowa ministers, two rabbis, a Catholic nun, and the Executive Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, saying: "Senator Obama is a committed Christian who found Christ long before entering politics and has been outspoken about his faith ever since." The Times article quoted Obama telling his supporters: "You have e-mails saying that I'm a Muslim plant that's trying to take over America. If you get this e-mail from someone you know, set the record straight." In the same month, the Washington Post quoted Obama strategist David Axelrod saying: "He understands that there are scurrilous attack e-mails going on underground that distort his religious affiliation and worse, but his judgment is that he trusts the American people more than that."

When asked by a questioner about his "Muslim background", Obama responded "My father was from Kenya, and a lot of people in his village were Muslim. He didn’t practice Islam. Truth is he wasn’t very religious. He met my mother. My mother was a Christian from Kansas. I’ve always been a Christian…. The only connection I’ve had to Islam is that my grandfather on my father’s side came from that country. But I’ve never practiced Islam."

Impact on voter opinion

An August 2007 CBS News survey reported:

When asked early in the questionnaire what comes to mind when they hear the name Obama other than running for president, one in 10 voters mention his name—that it is a foreign-sounding name, or that it reminds them of Osama bin Laden or [...]. 9% mention that he is a Senator, and 6% say that he is African American. And some voters perceive, incorrectly, that Obama is a Muslim. When asked what his religion is, 7% volunteer that he is a Muslim, as many as say he is a Protestant (7%). The latter includes 1% who correctly identify him as a member of the United Church of Christ. Eight in 10 don’t know.

Citing the CBS poll as one indicator that anti-Obama chain emails have influenced the opinions of some voters, an October 2007 article in The Politico also notes:

"barack obama muslim" is the third most popular Google search for the presidential candidate's name, behind "barack obama" and "barack obama biography," according to Google Suggest, which tracks the frequency of word searches.

Satire and parody

The Comedy Central television network lampooned Fox News Channel's handling of the Insight report on a January 2007 episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In November 2007, cartoonist Gary Trudeau penned four Doonesbury comic strips portraying the reactions of the strip's characters to reading anti-Obama chain emails on the Internet. Later that month, Washington Post political cartoonist Tom Toles mocked his employer's front page story with a cartoon showing a man reading a newspaper article headlined: "Obama's eating of vegetables fuels rumors about him."

See also

• Defamation
• Dirty tricks
• Islamophobia
• Journalism sourcing
• Media bias
• News propaganda
• Yellow journalism

External links

• Myths and falsehoods about Barack Obama From Media Matters.
• Timeline of a Smear From Media Matters.
• Urban Legends Reference Pages: Barack Obama From Snopes.