-Jon Stewart
"I don't want to nitpick but wouldn't the bombshell have been him not being from America? This one's more of a non-shell."
-Jon Stewart
In this interview with Bill O’Reilly, Donald
Trump discusses his suspicions of President Obama in refusing to produce his
long-form birth certificate. Donald Trump expressed these views and suspicions
quite publicly, and became a prominent face to the birther movement.
Even though Obama released his short-form birth certificate on June 18, 2008,
Donald Trump and other birthers refused to accept this as acceptable evidence
of the President being born in Hawaii. What could be the true motivation behind
this complete refusal to believe the facts? Many believe that Trump and other
birthers harbor racist beliefs, and that were President Obama a white man, the
issue of whether he had a birth certificate would not be existent. O’Reilly challenges Trump’s views by stating
that two announcements had been found from the week Obama had been born, one in
the Honolulu Star and the other in the Honolulu Advertiser announcing his birth
back in 1961.
O’Reilly attempts to portray
himself as someone in opposition to the racist implications of Trump’s
accusations. However, his actions contradict this image. On the View in October
of 2010, O’Reilly expresses many views that have racist implications concerning
Muslim people and 9/11. This is very confusing for the American people, when
networks such as Fox proclaim to be one thing but their actions display
something very different.
Trump then counters with
O’Reilly’s argument of the Newspaper announcements with the argument that he
has seen his fair share of fraudulent documents in his experience with Wall
Street and that there are still many doubts in his mind. This is a perfect
example of a problem many of the American people have; Selective perception. Birtherism really is
completely ridiculous when faced with the barrage of facts provided against it. However,
many continue to believe that Obama was not born in the United States, despite
the evidence that has been released to prove that he was.
O’Reilly continues to challenge
Trump’s unlikely doubts and Trump then states, “Two weeks ago I felt like
probably he was born in the country, today it’s possibly. I’m telling you, it’s
changed, I've seen too many things.” Although O’Reilly challenges Trump’s views
in several regards, Fox news as a whole continues to show support for Trump and
to validate his continually changing viewpoints. Trump then continues to
mention criticism that he’s received in regards to his birther motivations being rooted in racism. Trump
denies any such motivation behind his suspicions. O’Reilly states in several
different sections of the interview his disbelief that Trump truly has doubts
concerning Obama’s birth and implies that Trump is being very vocal on this
issue because of the increased amount of media attention that he has received.
On April 27th, 2011 President
Obama publicly introduced his long form birth certificate. In this video found
from Fox News, the group discusses the release of Obama’s long-form birth
certificate, and if the release of this document will finally put the issue to
rest. Although Obama had already released his short form, continued beliefs in
birtherism were not put to rest, and caused such turmoil in the country that the
Obama administration felt that it was necessary. It is ironic that many
different news groups continued to cover the issue, wondering if it would then
die but actually keeping it alive themselves. One look at the facts would put
the issue to bed, but networks like Fox continue to make the issue larger than
it really is. Right and left wing continue to discuss Trump’s actions in the
birther movement and whether or not his actions have racist implications.
The news continues to cover the story of Obama’s newly released birth certificate as breaking news. In this clip, Jon Stewart
sarcastically comments on the way in which the news presents this story. One
reporter states about the release of the certificate, “We throw this
word, bombshell around quite a bit, but this really was a bombshell.” Jon
Stewart then says, “Ya, I don’t want to nitpick, but wouldn't the bombshell
have been him not being from America? Isn't this one more of a non-shell?” It
is interesting to analyze your own thoughts when watching Fox News compared to
watching Jon Stewart. If we are not critical of our own thinking, if we do not
fact check and study the issue ourselves, it is easy to be swayed in whatever
direction is most appealing to our current belief system. We will find
ourselves agreeing with Fox as they portray themselves in a certain light, then
laughing with Jon Stewart and thinking to ourselves how preposterous Fox is if
we do not educate ourselves on what the TRUTH really is rather than the
TRUTHINESS that we long to believe.
After the release of the long
form, Obama expresses his disappointment in the American people that will
refuse to put this issue to rest and says, “We do not have time for this
silliness. We have better things to do. I have better things to do.” Stewart
then comments on Donald Trump and the conclusion to his egomaniac-driven quest
to reveal the “truth” about Obama. Trump expresses how proud of himself he is
for seeing the birther movement through. Stewart compares the amount of
truthful facts that Trump based his allegations on to the amount of hair that
he has on his head, and that he has to twist and warp that truth to make it
appear that he has a full, bushy head of facts. This is a perfect example of
Truth vs. Truthiness, of Trump’s attempts to salvage his name and image rather
than portray the facts as they really are.
John Stewart also brings up that
it is up to the news media whether or not to continue dragging on coverage of
the birther movement. He points out how ridiculous it is of them to ask things
like, “Can we please drop this now?” because it is completely within their
power. It is also within our power to seek the truth rather than the bias-laden opinions all around us. The facts are unimportant if
all we can do is cling to our previous biases. Do your homework. You might find
yourself being wrong, but listen to the truth and not your gut. We cannot
afford to ignore the facts.
“The fact is that if you look at what’s happened with respect to
this birth certificate issue,” Donald Trump said, “he doesn’t have it, he’s spent
millions of dollars on lawyers trying to get out of the issue.”
When Politifact looked at this statement they rated it “false.” The
second lowest rating they give on the site. Click here
for the full analysis.
Politifact stated, “After we looked through court records and
spoke to experts in the field, we found insufficient evidence to support the
claim that Obama for America spent $2 million solely on
birth-certificate-related work.” Trump continues “They give what’s called a certificate of live
birth, which doesn’t even have a signature on it and anybody can get a
certificate of live birth. It (the certificate of live birth) has nothing to do
with a birth certificate.”
Fox News does not analyze the statements by Trump. Presenting a
quote is actually very good reporting. However, allowing Donald Trump to be the
main contributor to a piece on President Obama’s birth certificate without
allowing a second viewpoint is both gatekeeping and framing. In the Society of Professional Journalist Code of Ethics it states, "Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant." Fox News does not allow for this open exchange in this instance.
Colbert Report Clip
Colbert Report Clip
“Real estate billionaire and basketball-with-tooth-veneers Donald
Trump has found some dramatic new evidence that Barack Obama was not born in
Hawaii,” Colbert said. Colbert went on to joke about Hawaii being a ridiculous place for
a birth anyway, commenting that, “Their word for hello is the same as their
word for goodbye? Bullshit.”
“Trump’s new evidence is that Obama’s 1991 author bio that was
written by an assistant at a book agency says that Obama ‘was born in Kenya,’” Colbert
said. Colbert then brushes off the idea that this evidence is relevant
by calling it a “clerical error.”
Colbert’s response to Trump’s new claim is a mix of two different
audiences responding to the information. He responds first as someone with
selective perception and selective retention leaning toward the birther’s view.
He then responds as many of us should by questioning the source, motivation,
evidence, logic and if there is anything left out (SMELL). While he doesn’t
comment on these specifically, Colbert does wait for more evidence and asks if
there is a background story to the author bio.
