GMA/ABC News DEBUNKS the Clinton/Obama/madrassa 'Insight'/FOX 'News' lie

[Sapphire Blue]

Good Morning America Video - The Obama Madrassa Controversy: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2822456

<This video DEBUNKS FOX 'News' lies>

Nothing Extreme About Indonesian School Attended by Obama

ABC News Visits School in Jakarta, Indonesia, That Has Caused Furor Around Presidential Hopeful

By JAKE TAPPER

Jan. 25, 2007 — An ABC News producer and crew visited the school in Jakarta, Indonesia, attended by Sen. Barack Obama in his youth and found it to be a normal government public school without even a hint of the extremist elements reported by various conservative news outlets in the last week.

"These rumors about our school being an Islamic extremist school are completely incorrect," assistant headmaster Akhmad Solihim told ABC News. "We are a regular public school."

Solihim confirmed that Obama attended the school as a child, before he transferred to a local Catholic school. The school featured both boy and girl students, basketball, and classes in many subjects. A class in Islam was matched by one in Christianity, complete with teachings from the New Testament, a sign featuring the Lord's Prayer and a painting of Jesus. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. One student had a SpongeBob SquarePants bookbag.

"Here we learn mathematics, science and social studies," one sixth grader, 11-year-old Rangga, told ABC News.

Obama Camp Campaigns Against Insinuations

This week, sensing a need to respond to the untrue allegation repeated in conservative media outlets that he had been educated in an Indonesia madrassa, Obama and his staff aggressively launched a campaign to debunk the story, perhaps indicating a fear that some may believe it.

(snip)

Clinton Camp Denies Role

(snip)

"We have no connection to this story and think it's deplorable," said Phil Singer, a Clinton campaign spokesman. "It's an attack on both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama."

The story seems to have started with Insight magazine, then bounced to Fox News Channel, then to myriad other conservative media outlets including the popular Rush Limbaugh radio program. Often hosts repeating the false charges did so while bemoaning the notion that the Clinton campaign was investigating Obama's past, a charge that remains unproven and unsubstantiated.

Continued @ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2822061&page=1

[WI_DEM]

1. I wish they would debunk the lies told on DU about him

[xultar]

2. Wow! Another one bites the dust. I'm crackin up. How can Faux continue

to be allowed to broadcast 'news' when they are clearly makin shit up.

[gatorboy]

3. The Hillary angle is new to me.

Is this the Repug's way of a double whammy? Seems like they're trying to find a way to kill two birds with one stone.

[Sapphire Blue]

4. Exactly.

[Fleshdancer]

7. their silly attempt at divide and conquer n/t

[Captain Hilts]

5. Too late. And too many Barak "Osama"s. And Glen Beck. Forget them. nt

[saltpoint]

6. I have it on good authority that Tommy Thompson was raised by

orangutans in a lab in the Czech Republic.

Swear to god.

[Fleshdancer]

9. I'm so glad McCain uncovered the orangutan story...

and how serendipitous considering he was only in the Czech Republic to interview the underage sex slaves Guiliani allegedly slept with.

[saltpoint]

11. LOL! Yes! I heard the same thing about Giuliani.

And don't forget George Pataki's unsavory fondness for farm animals...

[Fleshdancer]

12. we really do need to start a PAC to save the farm animals from repub exploitation

If I've said it once I've said it a million times...

:rofl:

[saltpoint]

15. From your lips to God's ears! Those nice little piggies and duckies...

They deserve formal protection against Republicans!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. If this originated on FOX news, could they be sued for it?

If they could then it should be done. They should be treated the same way one would treat any other tabloid type trash.

[Sapphire Blue]

10. It started w/RW 'Insight Magazine'; FOX 'News' took the ball & ran w/it.

'Insight Magazine' is published by Washington Times.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

13. Thanks

I wasn't familiar with the story until I read this post and was unaware of the origins.

I know of Insight Magazine, it is conservative tabloid trash unworthy of lining a birdcage with. They're deserving of a lawsuit.

[Supersedeas]

14. Do you think Brit Hume really cares about the truthiness of FOX?

[Sapphire Blue]

16. Of course not. However, ABC News is setting the record straight.

[watrwefitinfor]

17. A really good question would be WHY is

ABC doing this now? Of all the opportunities they've ever had to "set the record straight" on so many issues, why now? why this issue?

Something is going on here, but what?

Wat

[Midlodemocrat]

18. I saw it this morning. I got the impression that they were

more than a little pissed off at the untruths floating around about Obama. They likened it to the swiftboating and repeatedly indicated that it was patently untrue.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

19. K&R

again, to be perfectly fair, both CNN and ABC have been very unbiased in their reporting, clearly emphasizing that the story is patently false and so are the rumors it came from the Clinton campaign.

[Sapphire Blue]

20. Thank you, NYCparalegal.

I don't have CNN, so I wasn't aware of how they were reporting on this story. Thanks for pointing out that they are also unbiased!

Edited to add: Thank you for your post on that other thread, too!

[antiimperialist]

21. Now we have ABC, CNN, AP and the Washington Post debunking this story

Insightmag's credibility is not the worst becuase Michelle Malkin exists.