Thread: Donald Trump Scores an Important Victory Over the Media

Thanks Donald Trump Scores an Important Victory... Over the Media


By Seth Forman

Donald Trump is a shameless self-promoter. His prowess as a developer and businessman has been greatly exaggerated. He has crawled around in the muck and mire of what now passes for popular culture, and deserves at least some of the blame for tawdry's victory over grace in that sphere. He is an outsized egotist (about on a par with Obama) whose passion for self-congratulation is the only reliable thing we know about him. And that his future candidacy for president may soon be taken seriously owes to no one so much as it does Barack Obama, whose own candidacy seriously eroded the standards for presidential qualification.

But Trump has achieved something important. His decision to focus like a laser on Obama's failure to produce a birth certificate has highlighted the absolute corruption of the American media on the subject of Obama, and the dangers of power granted in the absence of an unaligned press.

Given that Obama's primary claim to the presidency has been his compelling life story -- his biracialism, his international upbringing, especially the time he spent in Muslim lands -- the media has shown shockingly little interest in several pieces of information about Obama's life which might legitimately concern voters. Nowhere in his biographies, for example, does Obama mention his 1981 trip to Pakistan, where he stayed with influential political leaders from that country at a time when a State Department advisory warned U.S. citizens against travel to Pakistan. There has also been a strange disinterest in Obama's 2006 trip to Kenya where, as a sitting U.S. senator, Obama criticized the incumbent government (a U.S. ally) and barnstormed with a Marxist candidate he supported. So too, there has been nary a peep among media elites over Obama's funding of the radical "education" work of bomb thrower Bill Ayers, or his own work on behalf of the activist group ACORN, the now defunct largest purveyor of voter registration fraud in American history (and, apparently, an enabler of under aged prostitution.).

One of the functions of the media is to protect the public from fraudulent statements made by public figures. The unwillingness of the media to fulfill this role in the case of Obama has led to significant, and probably needless, public tension. Obama's resistance to releasing the long version of his birth certificate, has served not only to raise legitimate speculation about the circumstances surrounding his birth, but to give fodder to anti-Obama extremists.

Gail Collins, the New York Times's most reliably uninteresting liberal attack dog, questioned Trump's sanity just for raising the birth certificate issue. But would she say the same about famed black Vanderbilt University Law Professor and Obama supporter Carol Swain? Swain has said "I think that by not releasing it [the full birth certificate], it makes people much more passionately opposed to the president. Moreover, for a president who was elected on the basis of his personal background, it is troubling that Obama himself would want to withhold such basic information."

The media's curiosity about the background of those running for national office seemed to know no bounds when it came to George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard or the sexual behavior of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's daughter. But during and since the 2008 campaign a virtual wall of silence has been constructed around Obama.

This has important implications for the country. Questions about Obama's family and his relationship to Islam, for example, and hence his world view, remain subjects of speculation. Former CIA officer Larry Johnson, for example, believes that the full birth record from the State of Hawaii was probably amended in 1968 to show Obama was adopted by his step father, the Indonesian Muslim Lolo Soetoro, that he became formally known for a time as "Barry Soetoro," and may even have his religion listed as Muslim. This would completely change what Obama has said about his past and represent a public fraud of a very significant magnitude.

At the very least the full record might help explain Obama's strange discomfort with exercising American power against radical Muslim regimes in Libya and elsewhere, where he has farmed out the defense of American interests to the United Nations, and his insistence on "dialogue" with rogue Muslim regimes in Syria and Iran. All of this while touting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Al Qaeda associated Muslim opposition groups in Libya as democracy craving freedom fighters.

Some of the missing details of Obama's life are doubtlessly trivial. Obama probably has benign explanations for not providing more information about them. Even Trump admits that the evidence strongly suggests Obama was born in Hawaii and is an American citizen. But that Obama has not yet released this information, and that the media refuses to criticize him for not doing so, is a testament not to the insanity of the "birthers," but to Obama's penchant for secrecy, and the dangerous amount of latitude the media has been willing to cede him.

Seth Forman is author of American Obsession: Race and Conflict in the Age of Obama (forthcoming, Booklocker), and blogs at


http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/04/ ... porta.html
14 Comments on "Donald Trump Scores an Important Victory...

His prowess as a developer and businessman has been greatly exaggerated.

I have to disagree with this. I've got a lot of respect for Donald and what he did in New York when others were financially tanking. He was at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing and he took some risks and it paid off big for him. You have to admit, he's a very successful business man. "Period" He is a self made man and was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Dixie

But Trump has achieved something important. His decision to focus like a laser on Obama's failure to produce a birth certificate has highlighted the absolute corruption of the American media on the subject of Obama, and the dangers of power granted in the absence of an unaligned press.

Mr. Trump, must use tools that works well with citizens. The Birth Certificate is old news!!

The media's curiosity about the background of those running for national office seemed to know no bounds when it came to George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard or the sexual behavior of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's daughter. But during and since the 2008 campaign a virtual wall of silence has been constructed around Obama.

Truer words have never been spoken! The MSM has become irrelevant in my opinion, I want NEWS not someone's take on the news. We may never see the likes of a Bob Woodward ( Deep Throat investigative reporter) again!

Originally Posted by nomas

The media's curiosity about the background of those running for national office seemed to know no bounds when it came to George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard or the sexual behavior of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's daughter. But during and since the 2008 campaign a virtual wall of silence has been constructed around Obama.

Truer words have never been spoken! The MSM has become irrelevant in my opinion, I want NEWS not someone's take on the news. We may never see the likes of a Bob Woodward ( Deep Throat investigative reporter) again!

I was watching a show the other day and they were talking about Katie Couric leaving CBS,and how It really was not about her,but about the fact that people just are not watching "network" nightly news much anymore. Well,I have a headline for you .... It IS Indeed about the news anchors to the extent that they are talking heads for their coorporate masters. They do not report the news,they spin the news to fit their political agenda and their beliefs. Even fox news Is beginning to succumb to this practice of telling the news from the network OWNERS perspective. I stopped watching the evening news on all of the major networks (ABC,CBS,and NBC YEARS AGO. Same with CNN- the master of "spin". Our country Is spiraling down a very steep hill with rocket boosters on because the LAMESTREAM NEWS MEDIA only reports (extensively) on stories that promote their political agendas and Ideals. In 2008 they became cheerleaders for Obama In his Presidential run,and refused to ask the tough questions that may have lead to his defeat. The so called "debates" on CNN were a complete joke and were "scripted" In favor of Obama and Mc Lame. The bottom line Is that the LAMESTREAM news media elected Obama,not the American People .... TS

Journalism is dead in America what we receive now is half truths at best and no one wants to rock the boat.

As for the birth cert. being a past issue I believe any one running for office should release all information pertaining to his birth,school and work life, all are important, perhaps no issues exist but the public has the right to know when electing the leader of the free world/ To say it's a non issue is naive.

quote(Our country Is spiraling down a very steep hill with rocket boosters on because the LAMESTREAM NEWS MEDIA only reports (extensively) on stories that promote their political agendas and Ideals. In 2008 they became cheerleaders for Obama In his Presidential run,and refused to ask the tough questions that may have lead to his defeat.)quote

I believe this issue is so important that I wanted to add, Glenn Beck is leaving his show, now of course they say it's low ratings however the fact he was stepping on toes I believe is the important issue. Honestly I watched some and some shows I did not however I believe he is so hated by this administration and George Soros that I told people he would be gone prior to election 2012.

You do not speak the truth in journalism in modern America if you wish to work.

Gail Collins, the New York Times's most reliably uninteresting liberal attack dog, questioned Trump's sanity just for raising the birth certificate issue. But would she say the same about famed black Vanderbilt University Law Professor and Obama supporter Carol Swain? Swain has said "I think that by not releasing it [the full birth certificate], it makes people much more passionately opposed to the president. Moreover, for a president who was elected on the basis of his personal background, it is troubling that Obama himself would want to withhold such basic information."

She nailed it and she's a supporter of his!

Release your records Obombi, why are you making such a big deal of something so trivial, eh?

I have noticed not any news reporters ever discuss the subject illegal immigration and crimes committed by undocumented aliens, why is that? When it should be headline news all across the Country on TV news stations.

Originally Posted by Dixie

His prowess as a developer and businessman has been greatly exaggerated.

I have to disagree with this. I've got a lot of respect for Donald and what he did in New York when others were financially tanking. He was at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing and he took some risks and it paid off big for him. You have to admit, he's a very successful business man. "Period" He is a self made man and was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Dixie

I hate to disagree with you, Dixie, but I do. Actually Donald Trump was born into money, his dad was a millionaire real estate investor and was known to have bailed him out at least one time I know of. Trump has also had several failed business ventures and reportedly lost millons for investors. He has been forced into bankruptcy 3 or so times.