Pro-Birther Movie Steals Media Matters Content (VIDEO)

Once you get to know the "birthers," you become aware that a singular trait that they all share is a chronic and indefatigable laziness. After all, what they are entirely about is alleging a vast, kooky-ass conspiracy involving Barack Obama and his family and 40 years worth of government officials, and then sitting back and whining about how the media won't make any effort to go out and substantiate their bonkersauce claims. So when I heard that the birthers at WorldNetDaily were making a movie, my first thought was, "Wow. Where did they summon up the energy to actually leave their paranoiac sweat-lodges and go out into the world, pointing cameras at things?" It just seemed a little too "pro-active" for them.

So naturally I'm not surprised to learn that they took huge shortcuts in the making of their documentary, A Question Of Eligibility. Nor am I stunned to learn that the short-cuts taken were patently absurd ones.

Via Dave Weigel, at the Washington Independent:

For starters, less than half of the film deals with the conspiracy theories about Obama's birth. Most of the footage is taken from cable news coverage of the president's election and first months in office. At the height of its sloppiness, the producers use, in its entirety, a video that Media Matters put together to mock Fox News coverage of the president's first 100 days. You can spot the rip-off because the blue bars and white text that Media Matters mark the 100 days with are still on the screen. Where the liberal group meant to mock the hyperbolic rhetoric of Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and the rest of the network's line-up, WND treats this like pages from the Gospels.

Weigel also points out that the film hangs more or less on interviews with Jerome Corsi, Alan Keyes, and Janet Porter -- a clear indication that this is the political documentary equivalent of Harry Potter slashfic.

Birther Commander Cuckoo Bananas Supreme Orly Taitz "only appears in ambient audio clips." Granted, that does sound a little horrifying.

WATCH THE PREVIEW:

MORE:
Birthers: The Movie [The Washington Independent]
Fox News: 100 days of "opposition" to Obama [Media Matters]

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to [e-mail] -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Comments

[JohnJay60]

10:27 PM on 09/18/2009

Quoting a Media Matters satire is awesome! it's like someone quoting The Onion as supporting evidence.

Or, it's like someone at ACORN ridiculing some stupid film-makers with exaggerations - and having the dissing taken seriously by Fox News.

[policyhack]

05:15 PM on 09/03/2009

It turns out the GOP Mascot is Un-American and must be replaced.

http://axisofreason.com/2009/09/03/gop-mascot-un-american/

[ElitistLiterati]

01:52 AM on 09/01/2009

Y'know it's things like this that gets me disgusted at "conservatives" I know reality has a well known liberal bias, but do they take the time to think at all before they accept any crackpot rightwing notion that comes down the pipe? You have truthers, birthers, deathers, tenthers, and whatever other " 'er " out there making a mockery of our democracy.

And what is more insulting to us Americans is that you have people that should know better (Congresspeople and the media) encouraging the kind of lunacy that causes the rest of the world to laugh at us. Seriously where do these people get their facts? They are taking advantage of the most uneducated demographic in our society to get them to believe and do the most asinine crap they can concoct.

[ElitistLiterati]

01:59 AM on 09/01/2009

The President has shown his "Certificate of Live Birth" which counts fully as his birth certificate. There are clippings from newspapers at the time announcing his birth to the entire frakkin' universe. What else can be asked for? Why is it that this president has to jump through hoops to show that he is qualified to hold the office by his origins and ad hoc loyalty tests while the previous president ability to think clearly is highly questionable?

I've been trying to avoid the obvious conclusion for a long time, but the fact of the matter is is that the far right is reacting to what they perceive as an end to White Christian dominance in this country and it burns them to their soul that a black man is president. They would rather vote against their own interests and ensure this country go down in flames than to acknowledge that the world is changing, and refuse to step into the 21st century.. Conservatives would rather America go back to the "way things used to be". Well if that is the America they want to go back to, I will have no part in it...or rather, I will have no choice in the matter because they won't allow me and the bulk of this country's population to take part.

We as rational people need to guard against this irrational thinking, make our voices heard and not let some idiot in the crazy tree go unchallenged on the facts.

[Derek S]

01:28 PM on 08/28/2009

Even though I think it's ridiculous to even acknowledge the existence of these people, I would still love to see someone take down, point for point, each and every piece of their arguments; from the sworn affidavit from Barack's step-grandmother (which was given through a translator), to the alleged announcement of his birth at two different hospitals, to the supposition that Barack would had to have relinquished his U.S. citizenship to attend an Indonesian school. I'm sure that even if all of their postulations were categorically destroyed, they would still cry afoul and it would only give rise to more paranoid conspiracy theories. But it might make me feel better.

[Angry1541]

01:48 AM on 08/28/2009

So, if you do the math...the 400,000 that signed the petition equal exactly 0.001315531%

The math is: 400,000/304,059,724 where the population number comes from the obviously liberal Google data *wink*....

Evidently the 'b irthers' can't do math very well...even if you add another 1,000,000 they still only represent: 0.004604359.

About 4 one-thousandth of the population...hmm...pick your battles people.

And the press--GROW UP!!! Let's report something worthwhile and mature!!!

[applebutter]

06:31 PM on 08/26/2009

They don't understand how transparent they are to all but their own fellows in easily duped-ness. I mean, the humiliated Corsi, and Orly Taitz? And so many half-truths. Nothing a thinking person would buy into. Love that "Exorcist"-type music in the background... Obama... the anti-Christ!? muhahaha

What a bunch of fools. This stuff needs more press so it can be properly ridiculed.

[kareemachan]

01:11 PM on 08/26/2009

They ARE lazy. In my mind, eight minutes and 49 seconds does not a movie make.

[mcvet]

11:14 AM on 08/26/2009

The STATE of Hawaii has a LEGAL System in Place to determine such things, THEY presented to the United States and ALL our Representatives a specific position on the Birth of Obama. He IS a citizen they said and that's the end of that, UNLESS someone can show cause to believe that state and it's officials are corrupt. Where the Republican Base comes form who knows but the party is in VERY bad shape right now and is going to get much worse...

[rf dude]

10:09 AM on 08/26/2009

" I know it's true

Oh, so true

'Cause I saw it on Tee Vee" - John Fogerty
--

[uncleT]

08:10 AM on 08/26/2009

Does it matter that WND was one of the first organizations (and I refuse to label them as a news organization) to debunk the birth certificate?

[Terry Krepel]

09:31 AM on 08/26/2009

Actually, WND was not only behind the curve on that, it was disingenuous about its reporting. It published the "Kenyan birth certificate" without making an effort to verify it beforehand, and then tried to rebut initial evidence that the certificate was fake. WND initially claimed that "WND was able to obtain other birth certificates from Kenya for purposes of comparison, and the form of the documents appear to be identical" -- but when it decided the certificate was fake, wrote: "WND obtained several samples of Kenyan birth certificates in use around Aug. 4, 1961, the date of Obama's birth, showing differences from the Taitz document." WND has never explained why its story chaned, nor has it published the original certificates that caused it to claim them to be "identical."

The Washington Independent was the first to report that the "Kenyan birth certificate" was a forgery of an Australian birth certificate. WND gets no credit for essentially being shamed into reporting the truth.

[arcanepsyche]

01:02 AM on 08/26/2009

Wow. I watched the whole thing. Jason's right, these people are really just lazy, ignorant fools! You'd think if they were going to put out an 8 minute "film" that they wouldn't end the clip with Obama sensibly talking about his job as president.

It's almost like they're saying we SHOULD stop questioning his birth certificate because he's doing such a damn good job!

[redlinemetro]

12:40 AM on 08/26/2009

I'll yawn later.

[Kevins]

09:34 PM on 08/25/2009

See all of Hoaxy-Folksy's True-Life Documentaries:

--How NASA Faked Photos to Make Earth Look Round
--JFK and MLK: the KGB Conspiracy to Corrupt USA
--Clear Proof of No Climate Change
--Creationism, Intelligent Design, Stem Cells Kill People, and Other Things Scientists Know But Can't Say.
--Why God Hates You, And That's The Gospel
--Why Rush Limbaud is God

[Flying Dutchman]

04:30 AM on 08/26/2009

Do these movies really exist?

[Quaoar]

09:30 PM on 08/25/2009

"this is the political documentary equivalent of Harry Potter slashfic. "

I think a Harry Potter slashfic would be much more intelligent and thought-provoking.

[winthegoodfight]

09:13 PM on 08/25/2009

And the Razzie goes to . . .

[madHenry]

10:53 PM on 08/25/2009

Hell, this isn't even worthy of that "best film" award they give in the porno industry.

[TheSpecter]

01:22 AM on 08/26/2009

Do NOT knock the fine work the people in the Adult Film Industry do.