The media blew up in response to Republican presidential candidate hopeful Mike Huckabee’s comments on Tuesday regarding President Obama’s birthplace.
Steve Malzberg, a conservative talk radio host and known birther conspirator, asked Huckabee if he thought more information was necessary in order to determine where the President was born.
To the awe of pundits and others, Huckabee replied, “I would love to know more. What I know now is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, is very different than the average American.”
This statement raised a red flag for fact checkers across the globe.
Obama, born in Hawaii, spent the vast majority of his youth in the United States.
He had a 5 year stint in Indonesia.
He did not even travel to Kenya until he was 20.
Huckabee went on to claim that Obama had removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office due to the former British Prime Minister’s role in putting down Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion in 1952.
The following day, Huckabee more or less redacted his comments.
He claimed that he had misspoken, and merely meant to refer to the five years that Obama spent in Indonesia.
This defense, however, appears rather absurd when taken with his reference to Obama’s dislike of the British as a result of their suppression of a Kenyan rebellion movement.
In an attempt to capitalize on his situation, Huckabee attacked the media for sensationalizing the story.
In line with a typical Republican response to criticism, Huckabee and his party blamed “liberal media.”
Journalism was once the way that important facts were reported to the public.
Now, an expanded media industry creates heavily polarized outlets that will defend any action undertaken by its ideological allies.
It is sickening to see such a detailed fabrication like Huckabee’s shrugged off as simply a gaffe.
And the real journalists who uncovered and promoted the facts are blamed for doing their duty to society.
Some might expect more of Huckabee, a politician that preached a valiant theme of “vertical politics” during the 2008 election cycle.
But it must be recognized that he has in the last few years since ran his own evening show in Fox News’ lineup.
This is the news station that has taken the lead in raising questions regarding Obama’s birth place has quickly come to Huckabee’s defense.
But in further besmirching its own journalistic reputation, Fox helped add to a startling number of Americans who have come to accept conspiracy and fantasies as fact.
According to a recent ABC News poll, between 16 and 20 percent of Americans believe that President Obama was born outside of the United States.
That figure is very discouraging considering all concrete evidence out there to the contrary.
Americans need to make a serious consideration when weighing their choice for the next Chief Executive of the United States.
While the policies of the Obama Administration may not please everyone, the party dominated by Fox News-groomed candidates should not be taken seriously.
If the American political culture accepts candidates that choose to spin fictitious fear-mongering stories, the ramifications will be wide-spread.