In this Obama business there have been a handful of jokes that were taken seriously. The fake Obama military oath comes to mind as well as an April Fool story of Obama and Occidental College. Some commenters today pointed to an Esquire Magazine story by Mark Warren today saying:
In a stunning development one day after the release of Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President, by Dr. Jerome Corsi, World Net Daily Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah has announced plans to recall and pulp the entire 200,000 first printing run of the book.
As soon as I heard this, I knew it was ridiculous; however, I guess some didn’t get the joke. I wasn’t even going to write about the story, except that the Wall Street Journal called what Esquire did “disastrous” in their own article: How Not to Write Satire. The Journal reports that Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily got all huffy and is exploring his legal options.
I must say that the Journal just appears to be miffed because their own writer fell for the story. James Taranto writes in his own defense: “A reasonable person could have understood its satire as a truthful report.” All I can say is that if a libel suit is ever brought, they surely do not want this reasonable person the jury.
Farah would be hard pressed to make a case that he was damaged by the story since folks who believed it might well rush out and buy the book before it went off the shelves, and you know what they say about publicity, even bad publicity.
birfers are morons. wnd and their ilk, however, prey on morons and they fully understand when their livelihood is being threatened.
their reaction has nothing to do with a lack of a sense of humor and everything to do with keeping the scam going. they need to come down hard on anyone and everyone who would dare tear away the veil, even jokingly, especially anyone in the msm. farah’s threats are just another example of right wing fauxrage — standard operating procedure for bullying the refs.
it doesn’t matter if joey doesn’t have a case; it’s all about scaring off any kind of scrutiny. and the wall street journal, long ago compromised by the right wing noise machine, falls in line pretty easily.
“wnd and their ilk, however, prey on morons”
absolutely, look how they affected RIO, they need to be made fun of to the point that Trump was, even more so. Obama’s mug & T Shirts are a good start. THey know their story is BS but do it to part people like RIO from their money.
This morning there was a religious guy at the door, my wife being very polite, did not close the door but summoned me for help in getting rid of the loon, he was pushing the May 21 rapture stuff, I tried a bit of rational thought with him, but finally asked him if I could have his car then closed the door, my wife asked “what’s wrong with that man”, I said he has the same affliction as the birthers. She laughed as she knows about the birthers (she’s from Hawaii) I wonder if RIO is a Rapturerist as well.
Could be. His initials add up to three, and in the Gospel According to Peanuts, Jesus gives three magic beans to Judas for a kiss. Moreover, the highly respected website “Above Top Secret” reports that, “the Dulce Deep Underground Military Base’s code name is Rio.” Finally, if you add up the area code for Rio de Janeiro — 55 21 — you get 13, which is a demonic number.
I’d say that trouble’s a’brewing!
Good idea. I have fundamentalist Christian neighbors (think: Ned Flanders). They are nice people, but if they get raptured away this weekend, do you think it would be o.k. for me to take all their stuff?
No. It all goes to their gay uncle.
I was fooled by the Esquire post until I noticed it was tagged as “humor”. How did the Journal miss that?
C’mon….look at the quotes the Esquire piece attributed to Farah:
“this book has become problematic, and contains what I now believe to be factual inaccuracies”
“I cannot in good conscience publish it and expect anyone to believe it”
Now can anyone who has ever read the WND really and honestly say that either of those two concerns would every cross Farah’s mind?
My nominee for quote of the day….
“Don’t believe everything you read,” Farah said in an interview with TPM on Wednesday.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/wnds_joseph_farah_may_sue_esquire_over_birther_par.php?ref=fpblg
Joseph Farah suing for inaccuracies? Now that’s rich!
Oh for fuks sakes. When you people let the right let jokes they don’t understand to be jokes turn into yet another nontroversy to distract people from real issues you have all gone over the deep end.
Let them wallow in their own filth! WND is making up stuff daily. Why doesn’t someone
“explore their legal options” with them?
And yet when our side does it as an obvious joke then suddenly that is called crossing the line! Give me a break!
came across a birther posting this as fact yesterday. from my own san diego reader’s “ALMOST FACTUAL NEWS” section:
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2011/may/11/sdqt-schooled/#comments