On Wednesday's All Things Considered, NPR's David Folkenflik erroneously claimed that NBC's Meredith Vieira "
notably failed to contradict Donald Trump or others casting doubt on where Mr. Obama was born.
Vieira...
acknowledged those remarks passively." In reality, the Today show challenged the billionaire about the birth certificate issue, twice asking, "
Do you believe he's [Obama's]
lying?" [audio clips
available here ]
The media correspondent began his report by noting how "there comes a
moment in almost every American presidency when the commander-in-chief
turns media-critic-in-chief." After playing two clips from President
Obama's press conference earlier in the day regarding the release of his
birth certificate, he continued, "Mr. Obama said that for too long, the
nation has been distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers. Notice,
however, the President's words didn't criticize the carnival barker. He
criticized those who get distracted, like the press corps sitting in
front of him."
Folkenflik then singled out Vieira, along with ABC's Christiane
Amanpour, for their supposed timidity in pressing the most prominent
birthers in interviews:
FOLKENFLIK: Some television interviews recently- and there have been a
bunch- notably failed to contradict Donald Trump or others casting doubt
on where Mr. Obama was born. NBC's Meredith Vieira and ABC's Christiane
Amanpour acknowledged those remarks passively. Amanpour did not
challenge the Reverend Franklin Graham when he said this-
REVEREND FRANKLIN GRAHAM (from ABC's "This Week"): The President, I
know, has some issues to deal with here. He can solve this whole birth
certificate issue pretty quickly. I don't know why he can't produce
that.
Notice that the NPR reporter didn't support his claim by playing sound
bites from specifically from Vieira or Amanpour. In the case of the NBC
host's interview of Trump, it is abundantly clear that transcript
doesn't support Folkenflik's assertion:
MEREDITH VIEIRA: Recently, you spent a lot of time talking about
President Obama's birth certificate, or lack thereof. You don't seem
convinced that he has one.
DONALD TRUMP: No, I'm not convinced that he has one. I've had very
smart people say, 'Donald, stay on the China issue, stay on the Saudi
Arabia issue, stay on the India taking our jobs and the Mexico, which is
NAFTA, which cleaned out New England.'
VIEIRA: Get off the birth certificate issue.
TRUMP: Get off the birth certificate issue.
VIEIRA: Why don't you?
TRUMP: Because you know what? Three weeks ago, when I started, I
thought he was probably born in this country, and now, I really have a
much bigger doubt than I did before.
VIEIRA: But based on what?
TRUMP: And you know what? His grandmother in Kenya said he was born in
Kenya and she was there and witnessed the birth, okay? He doesn't have a
birth certificate or he hasn't shown it. He has what's called
certificate of live birth. That is something that's easy to get. When
you want a birth certificate it's very hard to get.
VIEIRA: But it's considered.-
TRUMP: Excuse me, excuse me.
VIEIRA: The equivalent and in-
TRUMP: It's not the equivalent.
VIEIRA: No, wait, in the state of Hawaii, they said they have seen this document-
TRUMP: Meredith, it's not the equivalent.
VIEIRA: It is evidence that he was born in the United States. That's good enough for them. Scholars have looked at-
TRUMP: A birth certificate is not even close. A certificate of live
birth is not even signed by anybody. I saw his. I read it very
carefully. It doesn't have a serial number. It doesn't have a signature.
There's not even a signature-
VIEIRA: Do you believe he's lying?
TRUMP: And I'm starting to think that he was not born here.
VIEIRA: Do you believe he's lying?
TRUMP: He spent - listen, Meredith-
VIEIRA: Donald, come on, just answer.
TRUMP: Meredith, he spent $2 million in legal fees trying on to get
away from this issue, and if he weren't lying, why wouldn't he just
solve it? And I wish he would because if he doesn't it's one of the
greatest scams in the history of politics and in the history, period.
You are not allowed to be a president if you're not born in this
country. He may not have been born in this country, and I'll tell you
what: three weeks ago, I thought he was born in this country. Right now,
I have some real doubts. I have people that actually have been studying
it, and they cannot believe what they're finding.
If this is Vieira "passively" dealing with Trump's birther claims, one
wonders what it would take to put it on the "active" part of the
spectrum, according to Folkenflik's standards.
Later in his report, the NPR reporter did at least acknowledge that the
President made a false claim of his own during that Wednesday press
conference:
FOLKENFLIK: Today, President Obama said that during the budget battle two weeks ago-
OBAMA: The dominant news story wasn't about these huge monumental
choices that we're going to have to make as a nation. It was about my
birth certificate.
FOLKENFLIK: Now, that would appear to be a flat-out exaggeration.
- Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here .
