See for yourself: CNN has Corsi on Larry King right now.

[Gabi Hayes]

Campbell Brown says the book might be 'bogus,' but it's 'already a bestseller!' so you HAVE to cover it, right? just keep pounding it into the ground, while suggesting that there might be some inaccuracies in it

[Gabi Hayes]

1. I'm having a SEIZURE!

they justified covering it because they're......COVERING it!

saying it doesn't matter if it's TRUE or not, because people are talking about it. talking about the danger that it could 'go viral.'

unbelievable

[ck4829]

2. Here are some other things Mr. Brown could be saying...

"They're selling this book by the pallet!"

"They're selling so many books, it could fill up TWO of Scaife's warehouses!"

"They're selling so many books, that it could all be recycled to give shelter to every homeless person in New York City, but knowing conservatives..."

[Gabi Hayes]

3. Stephen Hayes brings up the Fredoso book, calls it a fine work.

a 'serious' work, satisfying the 'hunger' conservatives have to learn what Obama's about

the other CNN guy, a former TBN 'reporter' says a bunch of crap about OBama's stance on abortion, laying on the BS quite thickly

one other guest DID mention bulk sales, and how, if one has enough money, can make any book a bestseller

Now...Larry King has Corsi on!

[Gabi Hayes]

4. "I've studied at universities!"

he brags about working at World Net Daily

sounds like a halfwit

they do have Paul Waldman (I think) on to speak against him

he's from Media Matters

this is starting out pretty well

Waldman is talking about the falsehoods

Corsi said there were only 'nitpicky little' mistakes

[MadMaddie]

5. Any lawyers here? Does Obama have grounds for libel?

defamation of character. All the lies can be proven to be false?

This is a major issue - these people write lies and are never confronted and the message they get is that it's perfectly okay. They need to be hit in their wallets that is the only thing they understand.

[dsc]

14. libeling a public figure is all but impossible

It can't just be false but published with either knowledge of falsehood or disregard of the truth. That is why Carol Burnet's win over the National Enquirer was such a huge deal.

[Gabi Hayes]

6. Corsi says Obama was REGISTERED as a Muslim when he went

to school in Indonesia

is that true?

he says there's documentation

what does that mean....documentation?

[MadMaddie]

30. Corsi is a liar he doesn't expect anyone to conduct

research to see if what he has written is the truth. All of his lies have have been discredited.

This is the August surprise - it's time for the Democratic party to stop playing softball with McCain because he is elderly and a veteran.

[Mz Pip]

31. Wasn't he like

6 or something? My parents sent me to Catholic school. By this guy's logic I should be Opus Dei and picketing Planned Parenthood Clinics.

[Gabi Hayes]

32. Corsi's point was that Obama was actually registered at the school as a Muslim

I don't know what that means

I do know that the school was multi-denominational, so it doesn't make sense that he was registered in that manner. he was always a Christian, even as a little boy, AFAIK

[Mz Pip]

34. Who registers a kid?

His parents. They fill out the forms. A small child has nothing to say about what is put on any registration forms.

My parents put me in Catholic school. I had no choice in the matter. They filled ot the forms and made me go to Catechism classes. It's not like what choices my parents made set it in stone that I would be a fundamentalist Catholic.

Corsi is inteelectually dishonest. It's pathetic that CNN is ginving him so much air time.

[Gabi Hayes]

35. WRONG! he was being a presumptuous six year old presidential wannabe

arrogant, uppity little prick that he was/is!

[Mz Pip]

36. when I was 6

I wanted to be a cowboy (girl). I even had the fake guns to prove it!

How does and Opus Dei cowgirl fit into the grand scheme of things? :rofl:

[Gabi Hayes]

37. Opus Dei is OK! do you still have your cilice? is that how you spell it?

can I see it?

crazy catholic sects are just fine with the wingnuts in the pugparty/corp media

Muslims of any stripe are verboten!

[Mz Pip]

38. I probably have

an old prayer book in a box somewhere and some holy cards my Mom saved. Sadly I no long have the guns. :-(

[FVZA_Colonel]

40. He was registered as a Muslim at age 6 when he attended.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16813267/

But it was his step-father's religion, and he received weekly instructions in the Christian faith. In addition, though this may have been since he was nine on, it appears his step-father was "never religious," so by all accounts Obama never really leaned toward the Islamic faith in any meaningful way; it's the same crap conspiracy theorists and racists always do - take one little scrap of correct info, yank it out of context, blow it up out of proportion, and present it as the Gospel truth.

[Gabi Hayes]

41. thanks...they ARE going to use this against him...big time. the fact that it's irrelevant, and that

he went to a catholic school before he went to the nonDENOMINATIONAL school won't matter. it's just more fuel for the xenophobic fire

it's really beyond disgusting that the media are so transparent in their desire to do EXACTLY the same thing they did with the Swiftboat story, even referring to it with almost reverent beneficence, as they 'bemoan' the inaccuracy and bias of Corsi's book

my guess is they'll resurface Fredoso's, because it's ACCURATE, not a crazy hitpiece, like Corsi's.

this is never going to end....one big fat PR gift for McCain after the other, courtesy of the bought and paid for liberal media

[FVZA_Colonel]

42. It really shouldn't matter what religion he ultimately adheres to.

While I believe religion can inspire people to great virtue, agnostics and atheists can be just as virtuous without it*. His inner character (at this time) is what really matters, and whether Muslim, Christian, or Atheist I believe Obama is a basically decent (though by no means perfect man.

This whole "OMG SECRET MUSLIM!!!" thing is just such a god-damn waste of time it's fucking ridiculous.


*I didn't mean for this to sound as if "oh, they're all right, despite their obvious flaw." Virtue has to deal with entirely different, but sometimes interconnected, matters than belief, and a person can be just as virtuous when they do not believe in something as when they do.

[Gabi Hayes]

43. agreed, except they're USING it very effectively as one of the arrows in their disinformation quiver

it's one thing like that after another....remember, 12% of those polled think he's a Muslim!!!

they sling a bunch of shit against the wall, and whatever doesn't slide down, they use (and the FOCUS GROUP this stuff, especially things like celebrity, inexperienced, exotic). the things you hear over and over and over are the memes that have successfully made it into the political lexicom, EXACTLY like a successful marketing campaign

it's what they DO. they're sleazy con men, using the most sophisticated psy-op techniques, grounded in the fundaments of elemental marketing, ala Edward Bernays/Josef Goebbels

check it out:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/bender2.html

Karl Rove & the Spectre of Freud’s Nephew
by Stephen Bender

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country… We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized… "

So opens Propaganda (1928), one of several strikingly frank analyses of western social psychology written by Edward Bernays. This nephew of Sigmund Freud founded the public relations industry in the United States.

Mr. Bernays lived a fascinating life. He first got involved in high stakes politics when he "warmed up" the dour Calvin Coolidge by arranging the first presidential celebrity photo op in 1928. For the private sector, Bernays engineered a most notorious publicity stunt for the American Tobacco Company, by single-handedly neutralizing the taboo against women smoking in public. He organized a "Torches of Freedom" march down Broadway by ten smoking debutantes during the 1929 Easter Parade. With the help of feminists – some of whom understood the "right to smoke" as libratory – Bernays expertly publicized this spectacle, thus setting in motion the expected stir on op-ed pages across the land.

For Bernays, truth in public affairs did not exist per se. Rather, truth was the product of the "public relations counsel" forging prevailing "public opinion." It should be said that he readily recognized the ethical implications of his work, as witnessed in his later anti-smoking advocacy, after the dangers of cigarettes became known in the late-1950s. He could also be, in his own curious way, a humanitarian – as reflected in his work promoting the NAACP and anti-syphilis public education.

For Bernays, however, the necessity of controlling the public mind was a crucially important matter confronting the better element, a group in which he clearly included himself. In his first work, the hugely influential Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Bernays noted that the establishment of public education and the gradual extension of the right to vote caused consternation among western elites. The use of public relations techniques, then, was a way for the minority to "so mold the mind of the masses that they will throw their newly gained strength in the desired direction."

[tridim]

7. Larry.. Can I talk? Can I get a word in edgewise?

See this is what Media Matters does! Waaaahhh..

New election, same old bullshit.

[Gabi Hayes]

9. AWESOME!

Corsi is a complete idiot, who said he 'apologized' for the vile things he said on RW sites (freeperville, yes?)

Waldman cut him to shreds on Corsi's assertion that OBama is 'probably' still doing drugs, then tries to paint media matters as some sort of bully outfit who won't let him talk.

when has he appeared with media matters before?

[C_U_L8R]

8. Every time one of these creeps slithers out

just tie 'em to McCain and shine a big fat kleig light on the pair of em.
America is sick of this shit. They've been lied to for 8 years and they know it.
The last thing they should want is more of the McSame old crap.

[mucifer]

11. if America is sick of this why is a number 1 best seller?

This is scary.

[Gabi Hayes]

15. huge bulk sales on this one

[WeDidIt]

16. Because Reichwingnut millionaires fund bundled buys in the millions. n/t

[C_U_L8R]

19. That's not necc. retail sales...

Some lists are based on how many are shipped and there are
plenty of ways to game the system if you got the money to print up the books.
How many times have you looked at a bestseller list and gone WTF?
A lot of those books are never ever really "sold" and end up as returns
or go to the bargain bin or just get recycled as hamster cage poop catch.

[zulchzulu]

10. So CNN supports discussing the works of an author who calls the Pope a senile pervert

I guess their sponsors don't mind helping the author make more money, right?

[WeDidIt]

12. CNN is SOOOOO in the tank for McCain

I hope SNL does a parody of the press and how much they are in the tank for McCain.

Probably not because they like McCain. He does creepy skits.

[Gabi Hayes]

13. he talks about Obama being more influenced by Malcolm X than MLK,

portraying Malcolm X as a hatemongering radical

guess he didn't bother finding out what X was really like, did he, how he, before he was ASSASSINATED under very 'curious' circumstances, came to the realization that the WHite Men weren't devils, and that the two races must learn to coexist with each other

what a buffoon

Waldman is reacting with REFRESHING, RIGHTEOUS anger, calling his work 'slime'

THIS is the sort of person dems need to have on EVERY SINGLE show

you can be just about assured that Waldman will never be on TV again.

[Gabi Hayes]

17. Larry King just asked him about all his anticatholic/semitic writings.

Corsi said it was written just to stir things up!

so, if you just make things up, Corsi, why should we believe ANYTHING you say?

Waldman, unfortunately didn't bring this up, cause it's the obvious answer to his credibility.

Waldman is talking about the bulk sales, and how all these right wing books are "just one smear job after another"

[zulchzulu]

24. He. Got. Busted.

I would have come back more on his statements and mealy-mouthed statement about apologies. I would have said he got exposed and had no other recourse but TO APOLOGIZE.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

18. PAUL RIPPED HIM TO PIECES!!!!!

[eleny]

20. Corsi is a whiner

Media Matters illuminated Corsi's methods and all Corsi could do was whine that he wasn't allowed to speak.

A good 1/2 hour that we needed right now to debunk Corsi and his ilk.

[jefferson_dem]

21. Holy shit. Corsi was skewered from top to bottom, side to side.

The MediaMatters fellow is the shiznit!

We need to bottle this exchange and show it to the world.

[Gabi Hayes]

22. Corsi asked Waldman to provide an instance of inaccuracy in the book.

Waldman cites the case where Corsi accused Obama's father of divorcing his wife using Sharia law, with Corsi quoting some RW Canadian blogger who just made it up out of whole cloth.

Corsi counters by saying that he had THREE hypotheses for the 'facts' surrounding the divorce, and, in effect, allows the reader to decide.
Waldman says, so you're asserting that he divorced his wife with Sharia law, but posing it as a question, as in "Is it true that you're a drug dealer?"

Waldman says this is one of the typical ways RW propagandists get to have their accusation cakes and eat them, too, by not taking responsibility for actually making flat out accusations, but by couching them in the form of 'questions'

[Life Long Dem]

23. The book sounds like it sucks

Who the hell is buying this garbage. It should be listed under fiction.

[Gabi Hayes]

25. hahaha....nasty little creature on now, calling media matters a left wing SMEAR SITE

says they 'take things out of context!!!!'

poor fat Eddy didn't respond to that.

they DON'T take things out of context...they print the entire transcript of conversations, play ENTIRE clips points at issue

she's just another LIAR

[zulchzulu]

27. That Repig kid must want an anti-Catholic Pope Hater to become wealthier

That's what I'd be saying. I'd ask her if she wants Corsi, a person who has called the Pope a senile pervert, to sell more books. Does she support someone who hates Catholics?

Game. Set. Match.

[bullwinkle428]

29. Mama Bird O'Reilly just put the words in his mouth like so many worms!

[zulchzulu]

26. Campbell Brown wants to make a anti-semetic Pope Hater get more money

It's that simple.

[Gabi Hayes]

28. this WHOLE fucking show is about the NEGATIVE aspects of the Obama campaign.

not one word about McCain's liabilities

the last segment centered around the nasty little person from the previous segment, who said that when Obama plays the race card it's bad for him. she then criticizes him for his lack of experience, his ARROGANCE, etc.

nobody else on the panel was allowed to speak during the entire segment....just her rant

next section: will Obama's vacation hurt him?!!!!!!

this is really amazing

will they do an entire show about McCain? his connection to lobbyists, his problem remembering which story he told from day to day? his bad judgment, as evidenced by the Senate's sanctioning him for just that, terrible judgment in SPEARHEADING the rush to war in Iraq? his terrible judgment in being one of the very FIRST voices (on David Letterman, of all places) to assert that the anthrax poisoners came from....Iraq?

will ANY oth this ever be discussed?

and what about the fact that all the top positions in his campaign are filled by lobbyists

ALL the guests are criticizing him, so far.

Peter Beinart

Amy Holmes....actually defended him for taking a vacation! Larry axed her if his vacation hurt him!

the woman I mentioned before

Mark Somebody now being asked about PICTURES taken: Obama with Petraeus vs. McCain with Poppy....nice questions, Larry

Mark guy is talking about Scheuneman being on his staff...lobbyist for Georgia. good. that needs to get out there

[YvonneCa]

44. This morning it was...

..."Will Obama have the same problems as John Kerry in 2004?" Just like what you said,

"next section: will Obama's vacation hurt him?!!!!!!

Framing the election in terms of Corsi's book this way weakens Obama. It also keeps the media off real issues, which helps McCain...because if this election is fought on issues, Obama wins.

We're getting dragged into another war...with Russia and Georgia, no less. Seems there ought to be more to discuss than a smear book by Jerome Corsi or Obama's vacation.

Contact CNN. This is just totally unacceptable.

[Gabi Hayes]

45. the ONLY thing that can be done is for guests to CONFRONT the host, and demand

the parameters of discussion ALWAYS include something about McCain, and they'd better be prepared to have something to change the dialogue

there are NO dems capable of doing that, and it's what the pugs do EVERY time they're cornered with inconvenient details, like facts

problem is that guests like that don't get asked back, because they don't like both sides to be equally presented. no confrontational dems allowed. on the other hand, that's just about all you get with pugs

they actually have a 'school' they attend, to prepare them for TV/radio appearances. why do you think they have the same argument, almost word for word?

those shows are largely scripted, so they know what the main topics are going to be, so the pugs prepare their talking points in advance, then hammer them home, oblivious to the matter of truth or lie. truth is utterly immaterial....they're just tossing spaghetti against the wall, and if it sticks, they use it til it's effectiveness is worn out. then, on to the next outrageous bullshit meme.

[Gabi Hayes]

33. here's a surprise....Anderson Cooper is covering Corsi's book, too!

three hours in a row for CNN!

and it was on at least three other times today

hmmmmmmmmm

they're couching it in terms of its inaccuracies. it it's so BAD, WHY are you covering it?

why have you NEVER mentioned The Real McCain?

[Doctor_J]

39. Abrams was using the same screed on his program

Burn down Big Media.

[Gabi Hayes]

46. schwing!

http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/obamas-swiftboat

Jerome Corsi, a widely discredited right-wing operative who helped swiftboat Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004, debated Media Matters' Paul Waldman on Larry King last night. Waldman completely smoked Corsi, confronting him on multiple falsehoods contained in Corsi's new anti-Obama book. Waldman exposed Corsi for misrepresenting Sen. Barack Obama's religious upbringing, casting wild aspersions about his current time in the Senate and relying on an expert source with a history of anti-Semitism.

Larry King also deserves credit for prioritizing facts while hosting the debate, rather than playing the reporting game of presenting two sides to every lie. King opened by noting that several of Corsi's claims have already been proven false -- I'm not repeating them in detail here -- and pressed Corsi for a history of false, derogatory and bigoted statements. Corsi protested that he had apologized for some of those incidents.