Joseph Farah : Mother Jones alum lectures me on journalism 101 [Eligibility Issue]

WND ^ | April 12, 2011 | Joseph Farah

[RobinMasters]

One of the worst things about today's news media is the large number of worthless, clueless and truthless online bloggers who call themselves journalists but, frankly, bring nothing but dishonor and shame to the profession by their misappropriation of the term.

I tell you that as a prelude to a story.

On Monday, April 11, 2011, at 11:04 a.m. Eastern time, I received the following email in my inbox from Justin Elliott of Salon.com:

Joseph – I'm doing a piece for Salon about the claim that Obama has spent $2 million on legal fees to fight eligibility lawsuits. Much of this seems to come from WND's reporting – I'm wondering, do you believe it is accurate when Donald Trump asks, "Why has he spent over $2 million in legal fees to keep this quiet and to keep this silent?"

Does WND have evidence for this?

On Monday, April 11, 2011, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, a story headlined "Trump and Palin's $2 million birther lie," written by said Justin Elliott, was posted on Salon.com.

It seems traveling journalist Justin Elliott was pretty eager to get his big scoop up at Salon – having given me all of one hour and 26 minutes to respond, assuming it was not edited before posting, which, I think, is a safe assumption.

The intent of Elliott's screed was to attack Donald Trump and Sarah Palin for doing what most of Elliott's partisan pals in in the media have failed to do – hold Barack Obama accountable to the standards of other presidents, to his own pledge to conduct the most open and transparent administration in American history and to the letter of the Constitution.

[Tex-Con-Man]

There is no public record of what the payments were for. PERIOD!

Bob Bauer wrote a letter and a couple of other attorneys have filed a few documents, but the vast majority of the birther suits never even required a response from Obama.

I say the Perkins Coie payments (their Chicago office has 70 attorneys) went to keep Obama out of the Blagojevich trial...now prove me wrong! ( I can make crap up too!)

[Tex-Con-Man]

If you don't think that $2,000,000 has been spent in legal fees on the BC matter you are either extremely naive or extremely disingenuous.

I'm a fan of facts.

If you want to believe Obama has spent 2 million bucks on his BC lawsuits, you are certainly entitled to. Just don't try to say it's based on anything other than pure speculation, because it's not.

[Plummz]

attorneys have filed a few documents

Correct. This is evidence that the millions of dollars went to eligibility suits.

I say the Perkins Coie payments (their Chicago office has 70 attorneys) went to keep Obama out of the Blagojevich trial.

That is an interesting theory. Do you have any evidence?

( I can make crap up too!)

Thank you for your admission thatyou are a dishonest scumbag. That will be duly noted each time you stick up for the Usurper-in-chief.

[Tex-Con-Man]

This is evidence that the millions of dollars went to eligibility suits.

Only in birtherville...not in the real world.

[Plummz]

In the real world, there is no evidence for your position, and there is evidence for Farah's in the form of court filings.

You have provided nothing, zip, nada, zilch, zero -- besides calling names. You are right in line with the anti-American Obot scum. You are a traitor.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

One of the worst things about today's news media is the large number of worthless, clueless and truthless online bloggers who call themselves journalists but, frankly, bring nothing but dishonor and shame to the profession by their misappropriation of the term.

But then, by now the profession brings shame on any who adopt are adopted by it.

Journalism as a profession is interested in promoting itself, and routinely does so by tearing down the reputations of others to make itself look good. All journalists who are recognized as such by the profession as a whole participate in feeding frenzies such as journalism's participation in Michael Nifong's attempted rape of the Duke Lacrosse team, the baseless Alar scare . . . and others (e.g. Anthropogenic Global Warming) too numerous to mention.

All journalists claim that all journalists are objective, thereby proving themselves to be hopelessly subjective and not objective at all.

Not merely journalism, but respect for journalism, brings dishonor and shame on those who do/hold it.

[Tex-Con-Man]

You have provided nothing, zip, nada, zilch, zero -- besides calling names.
...you are a dishonest scumbag.
...You are a traitor.

You seem upset ...let me get you some calming chamomile tea...

[Plummz]

Readers of this thread are still waiting for you to provide evidence for your delusional assertions. Your continued inability to do only confirms your dishonesty and/or anti-American intentions.

[fireman15]

I don’t know how much Obama has spent on these lawsuits. As a matter of fact I don’t believe he has spent $2,000,000 on the lawsuits. I am certain that it has been far more than that... and as I tried to tell you... that is based on hard knock first hand experience. It is amusing to me that you or anyone else would even bother to dispute the $2,000,000 estimate.

It costs a lot to defend yourself from one lawsuit not to mention dozens. Obama’s team cannot afford to have this see the light of day in any court room in even one case. If just one case actually is granted discovery by a judge in some podunk place... it could be game over...