Newsweek's Jonathan Alter: Behind the 'Madrassa Hoax' (Has the swiftboating of '08 already begun?)

[Pirate Smile]

Behind the 'Madrassa Hoax'
What a bogus report on Barack Obama reveals about the media food chain.

Web-exclusive commentary
By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
Updated: 11:08 a.m. CT Jan 27, 2007

Jan. 27, 2007 - What will the first full week of Campaign '08 be remembered for? That Barack Obama was under attack for his behavior as a six-year-old. It’s worth revisiting the Madrassa Hoax story for what it tells us about our warp-speed politics.

-snip-
But neither this solid reporting—later backed up by ABC News—nor a categorical statement from the Obama campaign that he “has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago,” killed the story. Fox was “unwilling to stop when they knew they were wrong or correct what they knew was a lie,” says Robert Gibbs, Obama’s communications director. Executives at the network claimed that their on-air “clarification” was enough, but Fox’s own people didn’t get the message. Gibson—once a respected correspondent and host—went on the radio to malign the CNN reporter, John Vause. He “probably went to the very madrassa” as Obama, Gibson said.

On one level, the story ended up being a net positive for Obama. His supporters were glad he fought back hard, and the emphasis on his church attendance (he committed to Christ in his 20s) may help soften the concern about his troublesome middle name, “Hussein”—a family name given him by his atheist father, a Kenyan academic whom Obama met only once in his life. Even though Fox wouldn’t apologize, at least the falsity of the story was not in doubt. The problem for the Obama team is that other such stories might not lend themselves as readily to being shot down. Without being black and white, they fester in gray. And where Hillary Clinton’s vulnerabilities are all a decade or so old, Obama’s are new. He's so green he deserves—and will receive—more scrutiny than politicians who've been around for a while. So even when the charges are false, they are imbued with a patina of “news” that will not apply to stories about Rose Law firm billing records or cattle futures. Generally speaking, being fresh is an advantage in politics. But it makes any critical story fresh, too, when stale might be easier to squelch.

Political operatives on all sides are worried about the new rules governing their world. “We used to whine about round-the-clock cable in ’96—that’s child’s play now,” says Harold Ickes, a longtime Clinton aide getting ready to help Hillary. “The lesson of Swift Boat is you cannot let this stuff circulate unanswered.” The implications for opposition research are only now coming into view. “If they can finger you trying to drop poison into the well, you’ll be hurt by it,” Ickes adds. “Stuff moves out so quickly that campaigns have to exercise much more control over their negative information apparatus.” This could be good. When “oppo” goes transparent, it might shrivel.

Until then, the hostilities will escalate. Last week, Joe Novak, a Chicago media consultant with a longtime rivalry with David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign chief, launched a Web site dedicated to trashing Obama. (One of his first hits was on Michelle Obama for sitting on the board of a pickle company that closed a plant recently.) Meanwhile, Dick Morris, the former Clinton operative turned Hillary hater, is working on a dirt-filled documentary. Unless the Clintons’ courtship of Rupert Murdoch bears fruit quickly, it’ll no doubt be Doocy’ed for Fox viewers as soon as it’s released.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16842036/site/newsweek/

[lancdem]

1. Good piece

That Joe Novak guy sounds like a real jerk. And, yes, we already know about Dick Morris. :eyes:

[cadmium]

2. The part about it coming from unofficially from

a Clinton operative never was debunked -- or was it?

[Pirate Smile]

3. I think most people think it was a hit piece on both Obama and Hillary.

[cadmium]

6. I know. That's what most people think. I thought this

too when I heard about the story and they said it was from Insight Mag. That makes it a 50-50 possibility that it was a simple double hit peice. I also dont see any compelling reason to believe a Clintonn operative didnt feed them this story. I remember the way untraceable organized crime stories kept cropping up about Mario Cuomo and then - most importantly--they ended when he said he was not going to run for president. I just smell a rat-- I dont have evidence but my intuition says that this is more than a double hit. They sow doubt about Obama and make Hillary seem like she has been wronged by the Moonies. CNN went out of their way to debunk this, handling it totally differently than they would a similar situation in the past. I am very skeptical about how the media spins political controversy.

[lancdem]

7. Please read the link in my post below

As for Mario Cuomo, of course such stories would stop when he said he wasn't running for president, no matter what their source. That doesn't prove they came from any of his Dem opponents.

[cadmium]

10. This is just speculation. His dem

opponents had the most motive

[niyad]

9. is there some particular reason you are doing the work of the reichwing spin machine for them? do

you have one SHRED of evidence of what you are saying? mere supposition is NOT fact, my friend.

whatever one thinks of hillary, she is far too smart to do something that would virtually kill her chances of election were it to be found out. it really is that simple.

the fact that people on this board are so willing and almost eager to repeat the hate-filled nonsense of the reich is very disturbing.

[cadmium]

12. There is a link from Media Matters below that

is a little more reassuring. No I dont have a single SHRED of evidence. I didnt say I did. I didnt think I was repeating a right-wing point as much as questioning the assumption that has been made about the story immediately. I was listening to Thom Hartmann when the story came out and it was my immediate thought that this would be a perfect example of complex dirty trick. He was talking with Talk Radio News Service's Victoria Jones at the time (a liberal pundit) and she also was not so quick to dismiss the origin of the rumor. Obama will be facing a lot of this stuff because of his name, his party, his color, and the fact that he will be running against the both Clinton and if he's lucky the republicans. I do believe the Clinton team was behind the smears vs Mario Cuomo so I dont just automatically take denials for granted--may be they are telling the truth.

[lancdem]

5. Yes, it was

Both HRC's and Obama's spokespeople said they knew it was RW garabage. There's more on this at Media Matters.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200701250006

[applegrove]

4. I'm glad this is the story that comes out of the smear. Good article.

[SemperEadem]

8. Jesus was swiftboated, too.

Obama is in good company, I suppose.

[Doctor_J]

11. Why is there a question mark after this?

We are in for 18 months of Obama-bashing, from Rove and the media, and of course other Dems.

[Pirate Smile]

13. Well, I put the ? there because that was the lead in Newsweek had to

the story. It is on the front web page.

I think it is clear from the column that - yes, it has started.

It will happen to any and all Democrats who run. I don't think it is specific to any particular candidate.

[Pirate Smile]

14. kick

[gratuitous]

15. So will the major media be a little more skeptical?

Or will they continue to hare off after every obvious smear and underhanded hit piece that comes burbling out of the right wing swamp? Lesson learned, media outlets?

Oh, and by the way: If whatever Mr. Obama did when he was six years old is big, big, big news, why isn't what George W. Bush did between his 21st and 40th birthday considered fair game? I mean, drunk driving arrests, cocaine use, desertion, all seem to be something a little more pertinent and relevant to a man's character than what school he attended when he was six.