Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The View Perpetuates Rumor That Obama Leaked Prayer

Update July 31: The View redeems itself, sort of. The Obama campaign, right on top of it, sent a note to The View and Whoopie announced that the charges were false, though they never should've brought it up in the first place. It was after all, a deep underground rumor that hadn't even made it to CNN. Still, the rumor persists on the anti-Obama sites. But The View hammered on McCain's new ad today (see video below). Hasselbeck, of course, defended it.  
My original post:
I had avoided writing about this prayer incident because the whole thing, from someone stealing Obama's prayer to newspapers printing it, didn't seem right.
Now, bloggers and media outlets, including The View, the women's chatfest on ABC, have perpetuated a nasty rumor that Obama leaked his own prayer.

The View, with co-hosts Barbara Walters, Whoopie Goldberg, Sherri Shepard and Joy Behar, should know better. But co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a major supporter of John McCain, likely introduced this rumor to the panel. The producer of the show also is a republican. Always take into consideration the source.

If we've learned anything from this election it's that some people will do and say anything. Look at the soldier who lied about Obama and McCain's attempt to smear Obama with his lunatic ads. The guy is off his rocker. Really.

These rumors are all political sideshows designed to divert attention from the issues because Obama wins hands down on leadership, competency, brilliance and the rest.

It's too bad The View introduced this piece of gossip that hasn't even made it to CNN yet, because many people watch The View. They need to come out with a big fat apology tomorrow. They crossed the line in my opinion.

At this point, the GOP and the McCain camp are doing whatever it takes to bring Obama down.
They've gone full negative, so always question what you read.
This rumor that Obama leaked his prayer to the newspaper has been flying around the Internet all day. But it is NOT true.
TNR: Yesterday, I posted an item about an accusation from Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv that the Obama campaign had leaked a copy of his Western Wall note to the foreign press (rather than Ma'ariv having bought it from some yeshiva kid who stole it out of the wall). After some additional reporting last night, I noted that the story sounded a bit fishy--not only has Ma'ariv not offered any tangible evidence to support this claim, but they also have only made the claim via a spokesman to various Israeli papers rather than printing the accusation in their own paper.

I just got off the phone with a Ma'ariv spokesman who says that the accusation is "completely false," and that he has no idea who these papers were quoting from Ma'ariv. "No official spokesman for Ma'ariv told this to any of the papers." I've got some calls in to these papers to find out where they got the quote. (I'll update here when I hear back.) He told me definitively that "the Obama campaign did not give us a copy of the letter or approve it for printing."