Rebuff of pro-forma query only added to public’s disillusion / By Jeffrey Scott Shapiro

The Washington Times

5:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Many Americans were shocked yesterday when President Obama finally released his long-form birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. The real surprise, however, is that for the past three years, our democratic institutions did not address the matter. The media refused to tackle this issue with the same investigative drive with which they investigated Watergate, President Clinton’s alleged indiscretions and the George W. Bush administration’s missteps in Iraq; the courts declined to hear a single case on the issue; and Congress failed to hold any hearings on the matter.

Perhaps the saddest part of this story is its ending.

Mr. Obama did not release the birth certificate because the media pressured him or because the courts actually listened to one of the many cases that were filed. He released it because an obsessed billionaire threatened his electability in 2012, which forces us to ask the question: What good are our democratic institutions if they don’t stand up for the people?

Journalists did not address the fact that the president was refusing to resolve an issue about his constitutional eligibility. Instead, they covered the “birtherâ€