Keith Olbermann’s ‘insubstantialness’

I probably shouldn’t do this.

Giving attention to crackpots like MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann only encourages them.

But, then again, lies are lies – and they need to be refuted by someone.

Not being one of the dozen or so regular viewers of Olbermann’s cable show, where I take it he does a nightly impersonation of the poor man’s Edward R. Murrow, I missed the following interchange when it aired.

Thanks to the magic of YouTube, you can view it for your own amusement at your leisure, without worrying MSNBC’s ratings will increase significantly. (Fast forward to the 4:49 mark on the video.)

What ensues is a one-sided discussion (the only kind you will ever see on Olbermann’s program) between Jonathan Alter, senior editor of Newsweak and an MSNBC analyst, and the opinionated, but ill-informed host. They are talking about Alan Keyes’ charges that Barack Obama is constitutionally ineligible for the presidency because of his failure to prove himself a “natural-born citizen.”

Here’s the relevant part transcribed if you don’t have the stomach to view the show for yourself:

Alter: “They are a party [Republican] that is out of ideas so they have to resort to these lies about the fact that he’s not a citizen. This came up during the campaign, Keith. The Obama campaign actually posted his birth certificate from a Hawaii hospital online. Of course that didn’t dissuade people from continuing to say that he really wasn’t born in the United States. … There’s no way to kind of end this. All that you can do is laugh at it and recognize it for that act of desperation that it is.”

Olbermann: “To the point that even though the right-wing site the WorldNetDaily authenticated the Obama birth certificate it tells you about the substantialness of this, or lack thereof.”

Let me first deal with Alter. He claims “the Obama campaign actually posted his birth certificate from a Hawaii hospital online.”

Now I don’t know if Olbermann or Alter consider themselves newsmen, but in my business – the news business – that statement is what is known as a bald-faced lie.

The Obama camp never released or posted on any website a birth certificate that came from any hospital. What it posted was purportedly a partial certificate of birth from the state of Hawaii. It contains no information about the hospital of birth or attending physician or any of the details you would see on your own certificate of live birth. And since, at the time of Obama’s birth, Hawaii registered foreign births with such a certificate, it is less than meaningless as proof he was born in America.

Now let’s deal with Olbermann and his repeated charge that WND “authenticated” the Obama birth certificate.
I dealt with this in a previous column, when Olbermann presented me one of my most cherished awards – his “Worst Person in the World” designation.

It is simply untrue that WND ever “authenticated” the document on Obama’s campaign site. First of all, we would have to examine the original document, not a web posting, to do that. Second of all, assuming it is not a fraud, which is more than I would assume, it proves nothing about Obama’s actual place of birth, for the reason stated above.

I’ve said this before – and Olbermann knows it. In fact, he presented me with his high honor of “Worst Person in the World” precisely because he did not like my explanation or was unable to comprehend it.

There’s one other interesting side note to this story.

The only news agency in the world, that I know of, that has investigated this matter of Obama’s eligibility – even sending senior staff writer Jerome Corsi to Kenya looking for answers, where, I might remind you, he was detained in what became momentarily an international incident – is WND.

I know of no notable Republicans, sad to say, other than Alan Keyes, who have challenged Obama to hand over the proof the Constitution requires. So what the heck is the obviously partisan Jonathan Alter talking about?

Nevertheless, despite the near total news blackout on the eligibility matter, millions of Americans are deeply suspicious that their president is hiding something – something very significant about his past.

In fact, more than a quarter million of them have signed in just the last three months a petition at WND, calling on controlling legal authorities to demand proof of Obama’s birthright.

It’s not too late for you to do the same.

If you’re sick of being lied to, I urge you to show the Keith Olbermanns and Jonathan Alters of the world what you think of them.

Sign the petition here.

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