Fake News Blog
The
piece of “fake news” I selected is when President Trump tweeted that an
‘extremely credible source’ had called his office telling him that (President
at the time) Barack Obama’s birth certificate was a fraud. Trump tweeted this
in August of 2012 but had been raising questions of Obama’s birth certificate
since March, 2011. He publically announced this falsely, made up accusation to
TV stations like ABC’s The View and The Today Show. This “fake news” is
significant because Barack Obama was our President at the time of these false
rumors. He was representing our country and to say he isn’t a U.S citizen and
to spread false rumors that his birth certificate is fake reflects on us as a
country. It makes us look less credible as a country. President Obama put the
false accusations of his birth certificate to rest in 2008, when he released a
short- form birth certificate from the Hawaii Department of Health. Trump went
on to say how an ‘extremely credible source’ called his office and told him the
birth certificate was a fraud. Links to blog post from WND.com and
FreedomOutpost.com were also posted, promoting the fake news. This specific
fake news topic definitely resonates differently with different audiences. Some
Republicans may stick up for Trump, backing up his false statement, while some
Democrats may call out his outrageous comments. The fake news that is published
about Donald Trump probably interest Democrats more than Republicans and vice
versa. Republicans may take the side of their political figure, even if they
don’t necessarily agree with them. Democrats may be interested in this news
because it makes the political figure that they dislike or don’t agree with
look bad for not being a credible source. For this reason, I think it is more
effective towards the left side. Because of his false statement on twitter,
Trump’s tweet got a tremendous amount of attention from twitter viewers. It
soon made headlines on national news channels. Some news station’s, like FOX
News, who is known to take the views of Republicans, questioned how legit Mr.
Obama’s birth certificate was. Other news station’s, like CNN, who is known to
take the views of Democrates, were appalled by Mr. Trump’s tweet and thought it
was actually quite laughable.
The so-called "birther" movement is one of many conspiracy theories launched regarding President Obama - who was also said to be Muslim and even a "sleeper agent" for some terrorist network. Because Mr. Obama was re-elected to the presidency, the birther accusations were rendered moot; and even President Trump has explicitly acknowledged that President Obama was, indeed, eligible to be president. That said, using this rumor as the basis for your term paper is going to require a bit of investigation into this story.
ReplyDeleteContrary to what many people might believe, Mr. Trump did not originate this explosive accusation against Mr. Obama. Interestingly, the actual origin of this rumor may well lead back to Mark Penn, who was the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton in 2008 when she was running against Obama for the Democratic nomination.
The trajectory and endurance of this rumor is also quite interesting. Certainly it's true that right-leaning outlets (most notably Fox News) treated this false rumor differently than the left-leaning outlets - but eventually, because of the election results, it became a non-story. When Mr. Trump declared for the presidency, his support of this rumor became one of the ways left-leaning media ridiculed Trump (which was convenient, given that the rumor seems to have had its origins in the Hillary Clinton campaign against Obama in 2008).
The birther movement could be an interesting focus for your term paper; but since Mr. Obama is now a twice-elected and retired president, the significance of the story degraded. Crazy rumors will always circle high-level politicians, and so perhaps you could look at the competing narratives that have emerged around Mr. Obama's legacy as president. Most of his real critics long ago stopped worrying about his eligibility and started worrying about the effect his policies had on the country. Let me know if you want to focus on these sorts of "dirty tricks" and conspiracy theories that surrounded Mr. Obama.
Response to blog
DeleteAfter doing some research on the subject of Mr. Obama’s birther movement, it would appear that Mr. Trump himself did not start the rumor, but did, however, have no problem spreading it. Mr. Trump also had no problem putting the blame of the rumor on his former opponent, Hillary Clinton. According to factcheck.org, Hillary Clinton wasn’t a ‘birther’ and there was never any evidence that she started this rumor, despite what Mr. Trump says to the media. Yes, some of Clinton’s most loyal supporters, such as Mark Penn. It has been traced back that Mark Penn actually was the first to raise questions about Mr. Obama’s birth certificate and the legitimacy of it in hopes that it would help Hillary Clinton win the 2008 election. Because Mr. Obama won the election in 2008, despite Mark Penn’s attempts to disrupt it, the story became less and less popular by the day and mostly forgotten about. Until 2015, when Mr. Trump thought it was necessary to resurface the false rumors that were once forgotten about. Mr. Trump took to twitter May 4th, 2016 stating, “ Do you know who started the “birther” movement? Do you know who started it? Do you know who questioned his birth certificate? One of the firsts? Hillary Clinton. She’s the one that started it. She brought it up years before it was brought up by me.” This statement itself can be issued as “fake news.” Mr. Trump blames Mrs. Clinton for the rumors, but according to factcheck.org, no evidence ever showed that Mrs. Clinton or her campaign team had anything to do with the false claims.
On April 22nd, 2011, Politico published an article focusing on ‘birtherism’ and stating where it actually originated from. They stated, “The answer lies in Democratic, not Republican politics, and in the bitter, exhausting spring of 2008. At the time, the Democratic presidential primary was slipping away from Hillary Clinton and some of her most passionate supporters grasped for something, anything that would deal a final reversal to Barack Obama.” This rhetoric enforces the right- winged view of the movement. This quote makes it seem like Hillary Clinton was the one at fault, when really, it should’ve mentioned Mark Penn’s name instead of Hillary Clinton’s. But because this piece of writing was targeted more towards the right- side or non- Clinton supporters, it is easy to make it seem like she and her team started this false movement.
Well, as with many conspiracy theories, the birther story can't be described as becoming "less and less popular;" just, maybe, less and less credible in more mainstream circles. You said that factcheck.org did not find evidence that HRC or her campaign team "had anything to do with" the false claims, but you also acknowledge what many suggest, which is that HRC's 2008 campaign manager Mark Penn was the first major player to bring up the story to begin with. Those are mutually exclusive facts.
ReplyDeleteThe 2011 article in Politico (which actually originated out of the political reporting of the Washington Post, and so is most certainly classified as "mainstream, left-leaning" media) seems to bear out those origins of the birther story. I'm not sure why you seem to insist that blame is more properly placed on Penn than HRC, because Penn managed HRC's campaign - ultimate accountability has to be on the candidate, right?
All that said, my original concerns remain. This is a nasty rumor spread about Barack Obama that had some traction in some circles, but which ultimately did not really impact the elections - either in 2008 or 2012. Thus, while studying how conspiracy theories can influence public opinion might be intriguing for any number of reasons, I'm not sure how this translates into what might be called current propaganda - which is supposed to be the genre for our assignment.
Please let me know how I can help!