Perhaps desperate for new ways to undermine Barack Obama’s presidency, Fox News has joined forces with the “birthers,” the fringe who irrationally claim that Obama’s presidency is illegitimate because he was not born in the U.S. As Think Progress has reported, Obama’s Hawaii birth certificate is widely available on the internet. FactCheck.org has also extensively researched the subject. Their conclusion: Born in the U.S.A. But Fox News has started reporting on birthers without noting the baselessness of their claims, and in ways that lend legitimacy to their efforts. With video.

During Special Report’s Political Grapevine segment tonight (7/14/09), Bret Baier announced (at about 40 seconds into the first video below), “A U.S. soldier who has been ordered to Afghanistan is refusing to go… (saying) President Obama was not born in the United States and therefore is ineligible to be Commander-in-Chief. A Columbus, Georgia newspaper reports (the soldier) has filed a request in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order on his deployment. (His) attorney is involved in a second case that challenges the legitimacy of the Obama presidency. The Los Angeles Times reports a California judge has agreed to hear the merits of that case.” As a banner on the screen read, “PERSISTENT PROBLEM” next to a photo of Obama and the U.S. Supreme Court, Baier added, “It is just one of dozens of legal challenges to the president’s nationality.”

But rather than inform his viewers that those “challenges” have been thoroughly debunked, Baier presented the issue as a he said/she said, adding, “At least two of them have already been dismissed by the Supreme Court. The White House press secretary again Monday brushed aside the matter, saying, quote, ‘The noble truth is that the president was born in Hawaii, a state of the United States of America.’” Baier never pointed out that Obama's American birth certificate has been produced and authenticated.



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