John Kerry swiftboater Jerome Corsi is at it again. After writing a book back in 2004 which sought to sink John Kerrys Presidential hopes by calling into question his heroic Vietnam service, Corsi has now set hs sights on Barack Obama. With all the smears already circulating, you might think his job would be easier this time around.Well, if every news outlet is as fair and balanced as CNN was last night in covering the book, Corsi and his ilk might be in a bit of trouble. Watch while MediaMatters Paul Waldman, author of the book Free Ride: John McCain and the Media, dismantles every single one of Corsis lies in rather humiliating fashion. In this clip,Corsi gets slammed for claiming 700 footnotes while refusing to acknowledge that one of his sources is a widely discredited anti-semitic right-wing blogger.
Download | Play He talks about how many footnotes he has and how many sources he has. Well, if you actually look at them, there are dozens and dozens of citations to right-wing Web sites and blogs. One of the people that he cites as a quote/unquote source is a man named Andy Martin, who is an anti- Semitic right-wing blogger who once called a judge a dirty Jew and filed so many frivolous lawsuits that hes now no longer allowed to file lawsuits.
So my question to Mr. Corsi is, since you cite Andy Martin multiple times as a source, are there any other anti-Semitic right- wing bloggers that you also use as sources or is he the only one?
CORSI: All right. This is what Media Matters does. They frame questions that you
WALDMAN: This is what we do. We look at what you wrote.
CORSI: [] If youd like to talk, I can just sit here. The book has close to 700 footnotes in it. The footnotes are of primary sources. There must be 100 books cited in that. I did interviews. The interviews are cited. Theres newspapers included
KING: Well, respond to the question about Mr. Martin.
CORSI: Well, I quote I can remember one quip I quote from him and its just a quip, which is where he basically is saying if Obama will lie about his background and his family, hell lie about anything. And this was in reference to the way Obama presents his father in the autobiography, which I write about extension extensively.
MediaMatters has the entire segment here as well as a thorough debunking of Corsis book here.
Full transcript below the fold. The Dems have an email campaign going called: Get the Truth Out About Jerome Corsi
Please sign up and help us to expose this fraud.
Controversy heads the list tonight.
In New York, Jerome R. Corsi, author of the new book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and The Cult of Personality. The book debuts number one on The New York Times best-seller list. There you see its cover. Hes also author of the 2004 best-seller Unfit For Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.
In Washington is Paul Waldman, senior fellow at Media Matters for America. Media Matters describes itself as: A progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the United States media.
Mr. Corsi, did you say did you tell The New York Times the purpose of the book is to defeat Obama?
JEROME R. CORSI, AUTHOR, THE OBAMA NATION: LEFTIST POLITICS AND THE CULT OF PERSONALITY: Well, Larry, I make that very clear in the book. The book is designed to say that I oppose the candidacy of Barack Obama and I explain why. Ive got 360 pages and nearly 700 footnotes explaining my argumentation about Obama, complete examination of his life, his positions, his background.
Im an investigative reporter with World Net Daily. I have academic credentials. Ive studied and worked in universities.
KING: Did you as a good investigative reporter, did you approach this objectively or not?
CORSI: I did, but, Larry, World Net Daily, one thing we do clearly is we also have a policy that we write in editorials and state our political views, as well. So Im out front, just as I was with co- authoring Unfit For Command with John ONeill. Here Im saying clearly I oppose Barack Obama. And the book is designed to lay this information out and let the American public decide.
KING: Paul, you denounced the book as unfit for publication.
Meaning?
PAUL WALDMAN, SENIOR FELLOW & DIRECTOR SPECIAL PRODUCTS AT MEDIA MATTERS: Well, lets put in some historical context, Larry.
Four years ago, Mr. Corsi wrote co-wrote a book called Unfit For Command that was part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against John Kerry. Every single objective observer that looked at that came to the conclusion that it was just riddled with falsehoods and distortions and unbelievable claims.
Now, four years later, he has come out with another book that is also riddled with distortions and falsehoods. So the question is, why on earth would anyone listen to what he has to say about Barack Obama?
KING: All right, the
CORSI: Larry
KING: Yes. Go ahead.
CORSI: Could I get to respond to that?
KING: Sure.
CORSI: Well, the you know, this a common tactic of Media Matters and others. They broad brush, say its discredited, its full of falsehoods. When you get down to what they can actually prove, its nitpicking little objections.
And I mean Unfit for Command, we John ONeill and I have not had to withdraw or rescind one single sentence of that book. We continue to stand by it. And I do remind people that John Kerry lost the 2004 election.
KING: All right, the
WALDMAN: Well, you know, you can call.
KING: Let me hold it, Paul.
The Obama Nation depicts Barack Obama as a radical liberal who has tried to hide what Jerome Corsi describes as extensive connections to Islam.
There is a segment of the population that believes Obama is a Muslim. I asked the senator about this perception in mid- July.
Heres what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM JULY 15)
KING: A Newsweek poll shows that 12 percent of America believes that youre a Muslim and 26 believe 26 percent believe you were raised in a Muslim home. A lot of misinformation.
How do you fight that?
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE: Well, you know, by getting on LARRY KING and telling everybody Im a Christian and I wasnt raised in a Muslim home. And I pledge allegiance to the flag. And all the things that have been reported in these e-mails are completely untrue and have been debunked again and again and again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Jerome, if a man says he is a Christian, why doubt that?
CORSI: Well, I dont. I say in the book I cant read Barack Obamas soul. I cant look into his mind. If he says hes a Christian, hes a Christian. What I say is
KING: So (INAUDIBLE).
CORSI: Well, but what I document Barack Obama just there said he was not raised as a Muslim. I very clearly document in Indonesia, when he was six to 10 years old, living with his mother and his Islamic stepfather, he did attend a public school where he received Muslim education. And he
KING: But
CORSI: it was the type of Islamic education that was for a person registered as a Muslim in that school, which Barack Obama had also been when he attended Catholic school in (INAUDIBLE).
KING: But Jerome, you know that Jewish kids go to Catholic schools. It doesnt make them Catholic.
CORSI: Well, he was registered as a Muslim. The documentation I thoroughly researched it from the Indonesian newspapers and Indonesian television. He attended mosque with his stepfather. The friends who were in school with him attest that he was then considered a Muslim. And thats the testimony of the people in Indonesia who grew up in those six years (INAUDIBLE)
KING: But he says
CORSI: with him.
KING: But he says hes Christian.
Paul, why do you think this closet Muslim thing hangs around?
WALDMAN: Well, Larry, partly because what Mr. Corsi is doing is of a piece with this kind of innuendo thats floating around in e- mails and on right-wing Web sites, all meant to convince people that Barack Obama isnt really one of you.
But I do want to respond to some to a couple of things he said before. He said that the people who criticize him for getting the facts wrong are nitpicking. Well, knit the truth is not nitpicking. Either its true or its false. And much of what Mr. Corsi has written is just plain false.
Theres something else thats important, too. He talks about how many footnotes he has and how many sources he has. Well, if you actually look at them, there are dozens and dozens of citations to right-wing Web sites and blogs. One of the people that he cites as a quote/unquote source is a man named Andy Martin, who is an anti- Semitic right-wing blogger who once called a judge a dirty Jew and filed so many frivolous lawsuits that hes now no longer allowed to file lawsuits.
So my question to Mr. Corsi is, since you cite Andy Martin multiple times as a source, are there any other anti-Semitic right- wing bloggers that you also use as sources or is he the only one?
CORSI: All right. This is what Media Matters does. They frame questions that you
WALDMAN: This is what we do. We look at what you wrote.
CORSI: Sir, if youd like me to answer your question, I would.
WALDMAN: Go ahead.
CORSI: If youd like to talk, I can just sit here. The book has close to 700 footnotes in it. The footnotes are of primary sources. There must be 100 books cited in that. I did interviews. The interviews are cited. Theres newspapers included
KING: Well, respond to the question about Mr. Martin.
CORSI: Well, I quote I can remember one quip I quote from him and its just a quip, which is where he basically is saying if Obama will lie about his background and his family, hell lie about anything. And this was in reference to the way Obama presents his father in the autobiography, which I write about extension extensively.
KING: All right, let me Ive got to get a break.
Next, more on the sensational accusations, including some about Michelle Obama.
Dont go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM MAY 22)
OBAMA: If you get one of these e-mails that says Im a Muslim, not true. Ive never been a Muslim. This is just stuff that is designed to make people suspicious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Concerning the use of drugs, Mr. Corsi writes about it. Mr. Waldman will criticize it. But Barack Obama does not deny that hes used illegal drugs. He addressed the issue in his memoir. Hes spoken about it publicly a number of time, including these remarks in New Hampshire last November.
Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM NOVEMBER 21, 2007)
OBAMA: You know, there were times when I, you know, got into drinking and I experimented with drugs. There was really a whole stretch of time when I didnt really apply myself a lot. And it wasnt until I got out of college or got out of high school and went to college that I start realizing man, Ive wasted a lot of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Jerome, you write in your book that Senator Obama has yet to answer whether he stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college or whether his drug use extended to his law school days or beyond.
CORSI: Yes.
KING: But Obama wrote in his memoir Dreams from My Father which you repeatedly cite in your book that when he moved to New York in the early 80s: I stopped getting high. I ran three miles a day and I fasted on Sundays.
So are you saying hes lying?
CORSI: What Im saying in the book is that people who admit that theyve used drugs and Obama Obama says he used drugs through Occidental. And it was a lot of drugs. He said it was it had become virtually habitual with marijuana and cocaine.
My argument is that the self-reporting of people who use drugs as to when they quit is not reliable. Thats the argument I was making. So I was making
WALDMAN: No. That first of all, thats not what Mr. Corsi says in his book. Hes not telling the truth about that.
But think about what kind of (INAUDIBLE)
CORSI: The context of that is
WALDMAN: But think about what kind of malicious innuendo this is. What he says in his book is raising the possibility that oh, maybe Barack Obama was doing drugs in the Senate. I mean let me lets think about what this really means.
Let me ask you a question, Mr. Corsi.
Are you
CORSI: Well, can I answer that?
WALDMAN: Hold on. Well, let me ask
(CROSSTALK)
WALDMAN: Let me ask you this one you had you put up
CORSI: Well, I know you like to
WALDMAN: You had
CORSI: You like to talk.
WALDMAN: You put up on right-wing Web sites a whole series of bigoted and hateful posts in 2002 and 2003 that you later had to admit to when you got found out all kinds of really vile and malicious stuff.
CORSI: OK. If you
WALDMAN: Now, you say that youve stopped that. You say that youve stopped that and you dont put up those kinds of vile, bigoted, malicious, hateful posts on right-wing Web sites. But all we have is your word.
I mean, do can we really trust you?
People who do that kind of thing, well, you know, theyre not really very trustworthy.
CORSI: We have
WALDMAN: So can we trust you?
Are you still doing that?
CORSI: You have more than my word. Youve got the record of everything Ive written since then.
WALDMAN: Can you prove that youre not doing it anonymously?
Can you prove it?
CORSI: I dont post anything anonymously.
WALDMAN: But all
CORSI: And (INAUDIBLE)
WALDMAN: But you just said well, all we have is your word.
CORSI: These WALDMAN: You see what Im doing here?
CORSI: No, no.
WALDMAN: This is the
CORSI: I wanted to go
WALDMAN: Im doing exactly the same thing to you, Mr. Corsi, that youre doing to Barack Obama.
CORSI: No, youre
WALDMAN: Youre spreading this incredibly vicious innuendo
CORSI: What youre doing
WALDMAN: with zero evidence whatsoever.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Wait. Hold it. Hold it.
WALDMAN: And thats why people look at what you do
KING: Paul, let him respond.
WALDMAN: and they say this is not someone who can be believed.
CORSI: This is typical Media Matters. They bring you on the show and they bait you up, dont give you a chance even to respond. You hasnt mentioned
WALDMAN: Go ahead. Respond.
CORSI: Oh, you havent mentioned all my apologies for those statements. Ive written eight books since 2004. Im writing constantly on World Net Daily, now even doing a newsletter on economics called Red Alert. Im not posting anything anonymously.
Why dont you criticize the things that I have written?
And one last point. You know, these ad hominem attacks, to me, I hope Media Matters keeps it going right up until the election, because it doesnt refute what I wrote in the book.
WALDMAN: Theres nothing ad hominem
KING: Jerome, have you
WALDMAN: Theres nothing ad hominem about it. And if you
KING: Jerome, have you criticized other politicians major politicians whove used drugs or alcohol?
CORSI: Yes. Whove used drugs or I dont think thats been a theme that Ive written about with others. Ive criticized other politicians.
KING: Republican and Democrat?
CORSI: Yes. The Ive written against John McCain very strongly for the last four years on his immigration policy. I wrote a series of articles in World Net Daily of John McCains connections with George Soros.
The book is not written to support John McCain. I am Constitution Party. I make it very clear in the introduction Ill be voting for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party. The book is written
KING: Michelle Obama comes under fire in The Obama Nation a number of times. Jerome Corsi describes her as the angry Obama and says she has a campaign liability.
Heres Michelle Obama defending herself, in particular her patriotism, in an interview last month on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, WIFE OF BARACK OBAMA: To the extent that people dont think I love my country, I dont think there could be anything further from the truth. You know, I care deeply about my country. And as Barack has said, you know, only in this country would our stories, both he and mine, be possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Jerome, whats your beef with her?
CORSI: Well, again, I want to get on the record what is the facts. I want the truth out. So I went back to Michelles thesis at Princeton and showed how she based it on Stokely Carmichaels Black Power, arguing that African-Americans at a white university like Princeton could not have an authentic experience because they were feeling alienation.
WALDMAN: You know, this is
CORSI: And I met
WALDMAN: Weve heard this here before.
KING: Why is that wrong?
WALDMAN: Weve heard this before
CORSI: No, its not wrong.
WALDMAN: about Michelle Obama.
CORSI: Its not a
WALDMAN: People have gone back
CORSI: Its the truth.
WALDMAN: and looked at her thesis to try to argue that her relating the experiences of African-Americans who were at Princeton, that that was somehow her opinion. And I have to I have to go back to something that Mr.
CORSI: She based the book on
WALDMAN: I have to go back to something that Mr. Corsi said before. You know, he said hes written eight books since 2004. Well, you can put slime in the covers of a book and its still slime. And I think that anyone who looks at Mr. Corsis track record should be approaching this
KING: Wait a minute.
WALDMAN: with a critical eye.
KING: All right. Now, hold it.
WALDMAN: And thats why, if you go to our Web site
KING: Before you start
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Hold it, Paul.
WALDMAN: were not just
(CROSSTALK)
WALDMAN: throwing out insults.
(CROSSTALK)
WALDMAN: What we do
KING: Jerome, are you saying that
WALDMAN: Im sorry. What we do is we have gone through the book and we have documented the falsehoods one after another after another.
And if you go to mediamatters.org, you can see it all laid out there.
KING: All right. Jerome, youre not saying, are you, that a black should not feel alienated at Princeton early on?
CORSI: No, I Larry, I didnt comment on it in terms of you know, I said, first of all, it was part of the arguments I was making about how much both writers like Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael these extreme black rage writers that affected, in their development, both Barack Obama and Michelle. It was part of their emotional development.
KING: Oh.
CORSI: That was the point I was making and I wanted it on the record because its part of the facts.
KING: Wasnt Martin Luther King also part of their development?
CORSI: Yes. But, you know, Martin Luther King was not nearly as influential. Very clearly, B
Crooks & Liars Video Podcast
