Since I was in my teens I was clearly able to recognize the sensationalized inaccuracies in such supermarket tabloids as The Globe, Star and National Enquirer. Back then, as now, I would pass the strategically placed publications at the checkout stand and read the varying headlines. Not because I was interested in what they had to say or had any misconception that I could receive any form of insight from what they could share with the eager world. Mostly I gawked as though I was passing a devastating wreck, tying up lanes of busy freeway. At times I would laugh at the implausible announcements of some celebrity who was getting divorced or acting inappropriately or storming off into the sunset in a drunken rage.
I always found it difficult to take any of those publications seriously. It was equally difficult to take anyone seriously who elected to purchase such nonsense and drag it to their home with an expectation of elevating their knowledge of any subject tackled in that particular issue. So, you could imagine my surprise when I came across an article written by Harvard graduate Jerome R. Corsi quoting such tabloids.
For those who are unaware, Jerome Corsi has written several books and articles on the topic of Democratic presidential candidates with intent of derailing their candidacy. His first such biography, entitled Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, hit the stands during the 2004 elections selling more than 1.2 million copies. The book paints Senator John Kerry as a coward under fire during his tour in Vietnam, with affidavits from veterans who reportedly witnessed his actions. These claims were later repudiated by other veterans who were actually there during those excursions and disproven by other sources including official Navy records.
In 2008 he wrote another presidential candidate expose and named it The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality. According to various American news sources, many of the accusations made in the book are unsubstantiated, misleading or inaccurate. The New York Times wrote, "Significant parts of the book... have been challenged in the days since its debut." Additionally, on July 20 of 2008 he appeared on The Political Cesspool, a white supremacist radio talk show, to promote his book that would be released less than two weeks later.
In May of this year he release yet another book about President Obama entitled: Where's the Birth Certificate?, This venture questions the origin of the president's birth and thusly the validity of his presidency. Unfortunately for Corsi, just three weeks before it was published, President Obama released the long-form copy of his birth certificate for public scrutiny.
After all of this dramatic theater you would think the question of the president's place of birth would be a moot subject. As luck would have it, that assumption would be incorrect. On December 8, 2011, Corsi authored an article for ultra-conservative on-line publication, World Net Daily, entitled Arpaio gets death threats over Obama Investigation. Quite a titillating title indeed.
It appears that Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, has been encouraged by Jerome Corsim, as well as Arizona state Tea Partyers, to conduct an investigation into the matter of Barack Obama's birth certificate. It seems that, according to Arpaio, we have been misled into believing that his long-form birth certificate is real. The article quotes Arpaio as saying:
"This is a serious law enforcement investigation, and our findings are going to be controversial but based in facts... The investigators on the Cold Case Posse are doing a great job,"
A "Cold Case Posse?" Really!?! And I begin to wonder if he says this with a straight face. Upon seeing the phrase "Cold Case Posse" (sorry, it's so ridiculous I couldn't help but print it again) I am indescribably intrigued. I know I shouldn't waist my time on such trash but I have no choice. It's like watching a train veering toward a crumbling tunnel on mangled tracks. I realize the impending carnage but my eyes won't close, my head won't turn away. And then the article says this:
"On Tuesday, Arpaio posted on his Facebook page a reference to a Globe Magazine report citing inside sources in the White House who say President Obama and the First Lady are in "a panic" over the Maricopa County investigation"
He quoted The Globe Magazine! I couldn't believe it! I had no choice but to research this further, because my mind is rolling through the resumes of Mr. Corsi and Sheriff Arpaio. After all, Corsi is a person who may have used some form of deception in his past writings but he does have a PhD from Harvard University. Harvard University! And his go-to source is The Globe?
A simple 'Google' search took me directly to the article with a picture of our president looking very concerned. I stared at it in the same way I always view the cover of The Globe, Star and National Enquirer in the grocery store line; with a hearty chuckle waiting to escape my throat. It was like an old Saturday Night Live skit right there for my incredulous enjoyment. But wait, that wasn't all.
In September of this year, Sheriff Arpaio told Arizona Republic's Dan Nowicki that tabloids like The Globe and the National Enquirer are "more accurate than anybody else..."
He's kidding, right? I'm laughing. And it's not just a slight "ha ha" but an all out guffaw. This is 'roll-on-the-floor' material. I'm nearly to the point of hysterical, yet, I'm worried at the same time.
I can only assume this man carries a gun. Has anyone questioned Sheriff Arpaio's fitness to carry on his duties with a sense of sanity and a reasonable mindset? Who cares about the sanity of Corsi. He's merely an alarmist who's scaring people the country over with his anxiety-inducing rhetoric. But Arpaio is a sheriff, with a badge and a gun and a large group of people who depend on him on a daily basis. How can a county take a man with his intellectual incapacity and grandiose ideals seriously?
Equally, how could a Harvard Graduate with a PhD in Political Science not fear that the University would retroactively rescind his degree? I can imagine the faculty of this prestigious institution are at this very moment slapping the middle of their foreheads and cursing out loud.
Even more concerning is that these two gentlemen have a devout following in the very large coalition of Tea Party activists. Segments of our society are devouring these statements as if they're accurate and factually based. Not only have they been fooled once by Jerome Corsi in his very scurrilous books and articles but they have been fooled time and again by Corsi and Sheriff Arpaio as well as so many other pundits with axe-grinding rhetoric and a platform to disseminate it.
Have we come to the point in this country where freedom of speech has not succeeded in elevating our intelligence but has adversely dumbed-down a segment in our country that has been defeated with fear-inducing, hate-mongering rhetoric? Is there any way to overcome this virus within that has as many rights as the rest of us yet uses false implications and scurrilous attacks in an attempt to subdue our own rational voices?
I suppose our best defense in times such as these is a collective voice that is unafraid to shine a light on the rhetorical vampires, sucking the life's blood from the liberties our Founding Fathers had provided in a frail document so long ago. I believe education is the key.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that I have any delusions that the tabloids will suddenly begin printing accurate and responsible stories any time in the near future. And I can imagine that there will always be a readership, anxiously awaiting news about a drunken celebrity having been accused of fathering an illegitimate child with a far-flung alien. There's no doubt these rags will go on and that someone will buy them. However, if they go the way of Rupert Murdoch's outrageous publication, News of the World, there is little doubt we will begin to see their ilk flung to the trash-heap along with all the other sensationalized tabloids that have also become painfully irrelevant.
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