Check Your Facts: World Net Daily and The Obama Deception

Last updated on: April 12, 2011 at 2:53 pm by Alan Noble

Check Your Facts: World Net Daily and The Obama Deception 2011-04-12T14:53:35-06:00 Alan Noble

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Last week, WorldNetDaily published an article by Jack Cashill, author of the book Deconstructing Obama, which alleged that a photo of the president and his grandparents taken in Central Park was actually a photoshop forgery. According to Cashill, the significance of this forgery is that it offers further evidence of Obama’s “missing year,” from 1981-82, during which time, Cashill implies, he could have been making connections with Marxists or Muslims. If he wasn’t in Central Park with his grandparents, where was he? And why have we been tricked into believing that he was there?

The problem with all this is that the “original” is a forgery. As Salon points out, you can still see Obama’s knee in the photo that Cashill claims is the “original.” Here’s where the story gets truly sinister. According to a number of websites which copied or quoted Cashill’s article, his post began with these paragraphs:

In his definitive 2010 biography of Barack Obama, “The Bridge,” New Yorker editor David Remnick features a photograph of a dapper young Barack Obama sitting between his grandparents on a Central Park bench.

The bench is real. The grandparents are real. The wall behind them is real. Barack Obama is not. He has been conspicuously photoshopped in. Who did this and why remains as much a mystery as Obama’s extended stay in New York.

Both conservative and liberal websites archived the article and included these paragraphs at the beginning. But WorldNetDaily appears to have removed these paragraphs, probably in response to the evidence that Cashill was deceptively using a forged photograph to accuse someone else of using a forged photograph. It is not uncommon for blogs to edit an article after it has been published to correct errors, but to make these corrections without acknowledging the mistake is an attempt to rewrite history. The reality is that Cashill misrepresented the facts (intentionally or out of ignorance), WorldNetDaily discovered the error, they deleted the evidence, and kept the rest of the article as if the author was a reliable source.

So, what does this have to do with Christ and Pop Culture? As Christians, we have a responsibility to be honest and to support the truth where we find it. We need to be circumspect and discerning about the kinds of sources that we trust. In my next post, I will explore the importance of being discerning and cautious when we post links on the Internet and share them with friends. Perpetuating and sharing articles and videos that promote or espouse falsehood is damaging to our faith and our witness to the world.

For more on this issue, see Salon’s email dialogue with Cashill and WND about the article.

Asides

Previous Post

April 12, 2011

Rebecca Black, Stephen Colbert, and the Ethics of Mocking for Charity

Next Post

April 12, 2011 When Games Matter: Creating, Sharing, and Not Keeping Score in Minecraft

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Asides Elsewhere Featured Film Games General Culture Headline Literature Music Of the Moment Podcast Politics RetroPost Sports Technology Television Uncategorized Viral

Select a Month February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz