Even after the liberal Washington Post writer and “Journolist” member Karen Tumulty was ridiculed on Twitter for calling Breitbart News’ exclusive story about a publishing booklet that President Barack Obama’s then-literary agent used for over a decade to market Obama as someone who was born in Kenya, she decided to double down on silliness by writing a column on the subject, appropriately titled, “The Birthers Are Back! The Birthers Are Back!”
In her naive column, Tumulty, in mocking fashion, quotes the “obscure publication known as The New York Times” to try to make her ill-advised point that Obama had been thoroughly vetted:
Never mind that Obama was not exactly an unknown at that point. A year before, an obscure publication known as the New York Times had written about his election as head of the Harvard Law Review, and noted, “His late father, Barack Obama, was a finance minister in Kenya and his mother, Ann Dunham, is an American anthropologist now doing fieldwork in Indonesia. Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii.”
Except the passage that she quotes directly proves Breitbart News’ point about how the mainstream media failed to vet Obama properly and how Obama or those around him perpetuated myths about his background. In the passage that Tumulty quotes, Obama’s father is described as a “finance minister in Kenya.” But his father was not a “finance minister in Kenya.” Rather, his father was an economist who worked for the Finance Ministry.
Tumulty, who like most of the mainstream media probably did not do her homework on this matter because she relies on a mainstream media publication that serves as nothing more than a newsletter for the D.C.-New York-Boston axis, then glibly dismisses the booklet by writing, “What apparently did happen is something that is not exactly unheard-of in the media business: A junior staffer made a mistake.”
Except, as Breitbart News reported, the mistake that “a junior staffer” made did not get corrected for 16 years.
In introducing the Obama booklet, Breitbart News wrote what the vetting project is all about:
…Yet Andrew also believed that the complicit mainstream media had refused to examine President Obama’s ideological past, or the carefully crafted persona he and his advisers had constructed for him. …
…It is for that reason that we launched “The Vetting,” an ongoing series in which we explore the ideological background of President Obama (and other presidential candidates)–not to re-litigate 2008, but because ideas and actions have consequences.
…It is also in that spirit that we discovered, and now present, the booklet described below–one that includes a marketing pitch for a forthcoming book by a then-young, otherwise unknown former president of the Harvard Law Review. …
…It is evidence–not of the President’s foreign origin, but that Barack Obama’s public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times.
Tumulty’s silly article made Breitbart News’ points not only about how “Obama’s public persona has perhaps been presented differently at times” but also that the “complicit mainstream media had refused to examine President Obama’s ideological past, or the carefully crafted persona he and his advisers had constructed for him.” Breitbart News has repeatedly said the publishing booklet had nothing to do with “birtherism” and everything to do with the failure of the mainstream media to vet Obama. Tumulty’s article just adds to the mounting evidence of mainstream media failures.
Below is a screenshot of Tumulty’s article (in case she decides to read new media outlets, realizes her errors, and makes changes), which is included because The Washington Post is notorious for surreptitiously making significant changes to their articles without notifying their readers.
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