KOA's Ride Home guest said, "I'd like to know more about" Obama's "Muslim roots" without noting he's a Christian

Summary: During a discussion about Sen. Barack Obama on Newsradio 850 KOA's The Ride Home program, conservative columnist and radio host Armstrong Williams stated, "I'd like to know more about his Muslim roots." Neither host Lois Melkonian nor guest host Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute challenged Williams' remark or pointed out that Obama is a practicing Christian, not a Muslim, as numerous news accounts have reported.

Echoing a common right-wing smear, on the August 25 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Ride Home, conservative radio host and columnist Armstrong Williams said, "[Y]ou look at this Senator Barack Obama -- I'd like to know more about his Muslim roots. You know, his father was a Muslim, and in the Muslim faith if your father is a Muslim, you're automatically a Muslim. I know many people want to be very dismissive of that." While Williams noted that Obama had attended a church for "20 years," neither Williams nor co-hosts Independence Institute President Jon Caldara and Lois Melkonian pointed out that Obama is, in fact, a practicing Christian, not a Muslim -- a fact that Media Matters for America repeatedly has noted and that has been reported widely.

Further, neither Caldara nor Melkonian referenced the questions that have been raised about Williams' journalistic credibility, as Media Matters for America has noted. For example, in January 2005, USA Today reported that Williams received $240,000 from the Bush administration in December 2003 to promote President Bush's No Child Left Behind legislation "on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same":

Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.

The campaign, part of an effort to promote No Child Left Behind (NCLB), required commentator Armstrong Williams "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004.

USA Today reported that Williams did "not recall disclosing the contract to audiences" while he was promoting NCLB, but defended the contract by stating, "I wanted to do it because it's something I believe in." In September 2005, the Government Accountability Office issued a report stating that Williams' contract violated a statutory regulation prohibiting "covert propaganda."

From the August 25 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Ride Home:

WILLAMS: Since the founding of our country only white men have occupied the White House, and you cannot tell me they were all there uniquely qualified and was better prepared for the kind of crisis that the country faced at that time in our young history. And so I'm certainly not gonna say that they were all elected because they were the most qualified at that time and met the constitutional standards; obviously race played an issue. I mean, you cannot ignore that.

And so, you know, you look at this Senator Barack Obama -- I'd like to know more about his Muslim roots. You know, his father was a Muslim, and in the Muslim faith if your father is a Muslim, you're automatically a Muslim. I know many people want to be very dismissive of that. But I just think there are so many questions. I mean, he said to us early on that he attended Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years but he never heard any hint about the kind of derogatory things that later came out about Reverend Jeremiah Wright. But yet in that incredible race speech that he gave he finally admitted that he did hear these things, which sort of was dishonest. And then the other thing last week at Saddleback with the Reverend Rick Warren, he had the audacity when asked about Justice Thomas to say that he was not qualified. And I wanted to say to him, "But my man, those are the same things they say about you -- you and [U.S. Supreme Court] Justice Clarence Thomas similarly have the same pedigree, the same credentials, the same background, and how you can so quickly be so dismissive of him and say that [Justice John] Scalia and [Chief Justice John] Roberts are superior intellects and qualified, I don't understand.

CALDARA: Talk a little bit about race in this race. As an African-American man, you must be looking at this guy goin', "Wow, this does show the incredible progress America has made." The African-American vote is the largest bloc vote that sticks together -- around 90-95 percent of African-Americans vote Democratic; nothing changes that.

—C.K.