Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

We Find It To Be False



Some low-information wingnuts are up to their tired old tricks again, distorting and reporting falsehoods about what Mr. Obama wrote in his books "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope."  As soon as Mr. Obama's approval numbers rise, these bottom feeders trot out this stale and stupid accusation, which has thoroughly and irrevocably been refuted and debunked.

Unfortunately, when one's intelligence is at the level of a stack of pancakes, one  has a problem understanding simple facts.



PolitiFact:


Not Muslims, but Arab-Americans By Angie Drobnic Holan

A chain e-mail going around takes statements out of context from Sen. Barack Obama's books Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope . 

 The e-mail was sent to us by 20 PolitiFact readers who said they wanted to know if the claims were true. (For more on the e-mail and a link to its full text, read our article on Obama's book .) The e-mails states, "From The Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.' " 

 The quote comes from page 261 of the paperback edition of The Audacity of Hope. In the full passage, Obama talks about speaking in front of audiences of immigrants, and how he often tells them that they embody the American dream. But he wrote that when he speaks to audiences of Pakistani and Arab-Americans, their message to him has a more urgent quality. "(T)he stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." 

 Obama doesn't mention Muslims here at all; he's clearly talking about U.S. citizens of Arab and Pakistani descent. Also, the e-mail says Obama would "stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction," implying he made a statement to that effect. But it's clear in reading the text that the words actually represent a question Obama is being asked by his audiences: "they need specific assurances ... that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." 

 Though Obama doesn't say so explicitly, he gives the impression his answer is yes. The e-mail distorts Obama's quote and misrepresents who he was talking about, lumping together an entire religion when he was talking to two groups of people in the context of discrimination. 

It's a significant alteration to the meaning of what Obama said, and we find it to be False.



FactCheck.org:

 Q: Did Obama write that he would "stand with the Muslims" and that he nurses a "pervasive sense of grievance and animosity" toward whites? 

A: No. A widely circulated e-mail fabricates some quotes from Obama’s books and twists others.

10 comments:

Dave Miller said...

And yet, we still see falsehoods like this propagated on conservative blogs and new sites.

Much like the FOX News piece you highlighted, it seems that the truth does matter, if it conflicts with a desired narrative.

Jo Jo Politico is a good example. When faced with the truth of his incorrect posting, rather than change it, or take it down, he instituted new rules so those that those who called him on his false statements, could no longer post.

It should be pointed out, that in his case, even FOX News disagreed with what he was posting, having themselves, issues a rare retraction.

How some of these folks post and defend such disproven "false facts" to quote one blogger who frequently has issues with veracity, is beyond me...

Ducky's here said...

Today's Democracy Now! has the clip of Emerson trying to partially defend his oversight.
It's clumsy but he does manage to say that being called a moron by the Prime Minister and the Mayor of Birmingham, "hurt".

John Oliver is a "Brum". He's got to have something planned.

Shaw Kenawe said...

"...but he does manage to say that being called a moron by the Prime Minister and the Mayor of Birmingham, 'hurt' ".

Hurt? Can you imagine how he would feel if he heard what they called him in private? LOL!

Anyone believing anything Emerson says about terrorism would have to have his/her head examined.

C. Johnson the 3rd said...

Shaw, haven't seen the Decrepit Blowhard here in a while. Have you fumigated the place?

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Shaw, your analogy has offended the stack of pancakes.

Decrepit Blowhard said...

DID SOMEONE MENTION ME?!

PLEASE try to stop MENTIONING ME, A perpetually snotty pomposity with abjectly offensive ideas! My ABSURD accusations deserve to be IGNORED!

Les Carpenter said...

Like Benghazi this is old news.

There are times, with some mentalities, that inculcating just doesn't have any effect.

This is one of those times with certain people I'm sure.

Pas de mon nom said...

Vous avez raison, M. Rational!

Ducky's here said...

But it happens when we need solid, reasoned reporting, RN.
Instead we've got these clown peddling nonsense.

There's a very virulent sect out there which has figured out that small attacks can absolutely get us to punch back wildly and they want that. It appears that the idiots at certain news outlets want it also.

We are already at a point where we are going to sacrifice some of our values to get this sect under control but these fools can make it so much worse.

Shaw Kenawe said...

"We are already at a point where we are going to sacrifice some of our values to get this sect under control..."

Look at how far to the right some countries in Europe are headed because of this. Plus the anti-Semitism on the rise.