Confusion in the media

The amount of confusion in the journalism community is amazing. Even among the conservative media, they seem to have this story completely confused. Every day I run across several examples. Wes Vernon of RenewAmerica wrote a column on 12.11.08 entitled "Obama deemed qualified by birth for presidency". He makes a number of misleading statements in his column, including "Hawaii's secretary of state has confirmed that Obama was born in that state."

Wow. With people like this as allies on the anti-Obama side, no wonder people are so poorly informed. So I wrote to Wes Vernon today.

Letter to Wes Vernon of RenewAmerica

Wes Vernon, about your column "Obama deemed qualified by birth for presidency". You are unfortunately a bit confused.

What is on Barack Obama's original birth records? Were they ever changed, as allowed under Hawaiian law?

Do you know that under Hawaiian law, one to register a foreign birth in Hawaii and have a perfectly valid Hawaiian birth certificate? (per Hawaii Law 338-17.8)

Obama's sister Maya was born in Jakarta Indonesia, yet I understand she has a perfectly valid "Hawaiian birth certificate". I have even met someone born on the mainland US, who lost his birth certificate, and quickly and cheaply had it replaced with a Hawaiian birth certificate. All perfectly legal at the time, under Hawaiian law, apparently.

Please show me where the Hawaiian Health Officials affirmed that Obama was born in Hawaii. I certainly have missed that, if it happened.

There are other mis-statements in your column but let us start with that one. You discredit yourself with such lax journalism.

Robert Stevens

For a more careful analysis, see

http://drorly.blogspot.com/2008/12/hawaiian-health-department.html

Robert Stevens