Obama Nation: Media Matters Challenges

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From Media Matters

On Hannity & Colmes, Corsi still compounding book falsehoods with further falsehoods
Summary: On Hannity & Colmes, Jerome Corsi claimed that the "whole point" of his book The Obama Nation is that the assertion by Sen. Barack Obama that he stopped using illegal drugs when he went to college is "not reliable."

But Corsi does not make that point in his book; rather, Corsi falsely asserted that Obama "has yet to answer questions" about his drug use. Sean Hannity asked Corsi, "[D]o we know if he ever sold drugs[?]" -- though Hannity has previously asserted that such a question was a manifestation of "politics of personal destruction."

During the August 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Jerome Corsi, author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality (Threshold Editions, August 2008), claimed that the "whole point of the book" is that the assertion by Sen. Barack Obama that he stopped using illegal drugs when he went to college is "not reliable." But in his book, Corsi does not make that point; rather, Corsi made the false assertion that Obama "has yet to answer questions" concerning whether "he stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college, or whether his drug use extended into law school days or beyond." As Media Matters for America has noted, Obama wrote in his autobiography, Dreams from My Father, that he "stopped getting high" shortly after moving to New York City to attend Columbia University as an undergraduate -- a statement contradicting Corsi's claim in the book that Obama had not said whether he stopped using drugs.

On Hannity & Colmes, Corsi said: "[M]y objection to what Obama says is Obama says well, you know, in college he -- it were -- he quit drugs. My whole point of the book is self-reporting from people they admit they use drugs is not reliable as to when they quit." But that point was never made in any of the book's passages about Obama's past drug use.

It was not the first time that Corsi has mischaracterized his -- false -- claim in the book. During the August 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, contributor Bob Beckel said to Corsi: "This book is full of innuendos, misstatements, lies. He says -- Mr. Corsi says, 'It's 300 pages, 600 footnotes, and I stand by every statement in this book.' Let me see if you stand by some of these statements, Doctor: 'Obama never revealed if or when he stopped using drugs.' That's a lie. The truth is that he said in his own book Dreams From My Father that he stopped when he got into college." Corsi then contradicted his book's false claim by making another false claim, saying, "He fully admitted his drug use, both marijuana and cocaine. He says it continued through college." In fact, Obama did not say his drug use "continued through college"; he said he stopped after moving to New York to attend Columbia.

Without providing any basis for the question, Hannity asked Corsi, "[D]o we know if he ever sold drugs[?]" But Hannity has previously asserted that such a question was a manifestation of "the politics of personal destruction" and "smear, besmirching, character assassination."

Media Matters has documented that in appearances promoting his falsehood-laden book, Corsi has issued even more falsehoods.

From the August 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

CORSI: Obama has a whole section of the book talking about Frank, who has been now fully identified as Frank Marshall Davis. And Obama said he went over -- and, you know, this is a time when he was doing drugs, doing -- was doing marijuana and cocaine, he was drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes.

HANNITY: Do we -- do we know if he ever sold drugs, which was a question that --

CORSI: I raise that question. I mean -- and my objection to what Obama says is Obama says, well, you know, in college he -- it were -- he quit drugs. My whole point of the book is self-reporting from people who admit they use drugs is not reliable as to when they quit.

HANNITY: All right. Back to these radical associations.

From the December 17, 2007, edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

HANNITY: Yeah, it seems like -- what do you make of -- I think we've been able to glean a little bit out of how Hillary would run in a general election, in as much as, you know, going back to the kindergarten years of Barack Obama, which was becoming a big issue. She had a surrogate on the campaign attack him and lay the foundation or the suggestion that Barack Obama -- well, the question needs to be raised, was he dealing drugs? It seems like the politics of personal destruction.

From the December 13, 2007, edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

HANNITY: Let me ask you this.

ANN COULTER (conservative pundit): Yeah, let's get back to the pot.

HANNITY: Yeah. What [Bill] Shaheen said was, quote -- I'm talking about the drug use -- "When was the last time? Did he ever give drugs to everybody? Did he sell them to anyone?"

COULTER: Oh, he did say that? So I take it back.

HANNITY: He did say that. And then he said, there are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. Meanwhile, he's dumping all of this on Barack Obama. But this is what Clintons do. Politics of personal destruction, smear, besmirching, character assassination. And then they -- "Oh, I had nothing to do with it."
— E.H.H.
Posted to the web on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 07:55 PM ET