Back-to-back guests on Boyles repeated discredited claim that Obama has not released valid birth certificate

Summary: Peter Boyles of 630 KHOW-AM failed to challenge his guests, The Obama Nation author Jerome Corsi and attorney Philip J. Berg, when both repeated the debunked falsehood that Sen. Barack Obama has not produced a birth certificate establishing his U.S. citizenship, and thus his eligibility to run for president. Boyles did not mention that in addition to posting on the campaign website a copy of Obama's birth certificate, which a Hawaii Department of Health official has pronounced "valid," the Obama campaign reportedly provided the original document to FactCheck.org, whose staff reported that it "meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship."

On his October 9 630 KHOW-AM broadcast, Peter Boyles hosted discredited author Jerome Corsi and attorney Philip J. Berg, both of whom repeated the debunked falsehood that Sen. Barack Obama has not released an authentic birth certificate establishing that he was born in the United States and therefore could be ineligible to run for president. As Colorado Media Matters pointed out when Newsradio 850 KOA host "Gunny" Bob Newman made similar allegations on his program, the Hawaii Department of Health has confirmed that the birth certificate the Obama campaign posted on its website is "a valid Hawaii state birth certificate," and a department spokeswoman has called the speculation about Obama's citizenship "pretty ridiculous." Indeed, even WorldNetDaily, the right-wing website for which Corsi works as a staff reporter, reported on August 23 that a "WND investigation into Obama's birth certificate utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic," as Media Matters for America has documented.

Additionally, Boyles failed to challenge Corsi's unsubstantiated suggestion that the Obama campaign was responsible for his recent encounter with authorities in Kenya, stating: "[T]hey're even willing to have me arrested in Kenya ... this is how desperate the Obama campaign is to prevent the American people from knowing who Obama truly is." Boyles failed to mention, however, that immigration authorities in Kenya reportedly detained Corsi because he attempted to promote his book without a proper work permit, as Media Matters for America has noted.

Moreover, Boyles uncritically allowed Corsi to insist that his recently released book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality (Simon & Schuster, August 2008) "is 100 percent true," despite its numerous falsehoods about Obama, which Media Matters for America has documented. As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Boyles similarly failed to question Corsi's attacks on Obama during his August 14 broadcast, despite the book's well-documented false assertions.

During the October 9 broadcast, Boyles asked Corsi: "On this birth certificate story -- Jerry, what do you believe about that? What do you know about it?" Corsi responded, "Well, the main issue on the birth certificate: If there's nothing to hide, why won't the Obama campaign release it? That's what I keep saying. There's something there that is being hidden." Later, Corsi stated, "There's something on that birth certificate. You know, maybe Obama was born in Kenya; I don't know what it shows. But why hide a document that should be as transparent as your birth certificate?" The discussion continued:

BOYLES: Yeah. What is your gut reaction? Not what you know or anything, but what's your belief about this?

CORSI: My gut reaction is that Obama was either born in Kenya, 'cause his mother came over prior to his birth and couldn't get back home before he was born. Because what's filed on his website appears to be a registration of birth --

BOYLES: Yes.

CORSI: -- not the document generated by the hospital when you're born.

BOYLES: That's right. That's right.

Boyles later interviewed Berg, who sued to have a federal court rule that Obama is ineligible to become president because, in Berg's words, "for over a year there's been a question of where Barack Obama was born." Berg questioned whether Obama is "a natural-born citizen," and continued:

[W]e're just asking for documentation. Prove me wrong. I've made challenges; I'll make it again on your station. Barack Obama, prove me wrong. Show me a certified copy, an official copy that we can even secure to get permission to get it, of your birth certificate."

Berg also asserted that "our further research has determined that it appears that Obama was and probably still is a citizen of Indonesia, and therefore he would need a certification of citizenship, which you get after you go through immigration."

In fact, as Media Matters for America has pointed out, in addition to posting a copy of Obama's birth certificate on the campaign website, the Obama campaign reportedly provided the original document to FactCheck.org, whose staff reported on August 21 that they "have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate" and wrote that it "meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship."

Further, the August 23 WorldNetDaily article regarding Berg's lawsuit reported that "a WND investigation has found that at least part of Berg's lawsuit relies on discredited claims." In addition to citing FactCheck.org's findings, WND stated:

A separate WND investigation into Obama's birth certificate utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic. The investigation also revealed methods used by some of the bloggers to determine the document was fake involved forgeries, in that a few bloggers added text and images to the certificate scan that weren't originally there.

Speaking to Boyles, Berg later questioned the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate by saying, "One of the certifications of live birth which they have put forth, they mention that his race is African, and there's no -- no one was called African back in 1961." However, Obama's birth certificate, which was filed on August 8, 1961, does not state Obama's race, but rather lists the "race" of Obama's father, who was Kenyan, as "African."

From the October 9 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: You know, we are going to have Philip Berg, the attorney, on this show.

CORSI: Right.

BOYLES: Good work; Mike Rotollo's got the con [console], he's speaking with Mr. Berg right now. On this birth certificate story -- Jerry, what do you believe about that? What do you know about it?

CORSI: Well, the main issue on the birth certificate: If there's nothing to hide, why won't the Obama campaign release it? That's what I keep saying. There's something there that is being hidden.

[...]

CORSI: There's something on that birth certificate. You know, maybe Obama was born in Kenya; I don't know what it shows. But why hide a document that should be as transparent as your birth certificate?

BOYLES: Yeah. What is your gut reaction? Not what you know or anything, but what's your belief about this?

CORSI: My gut reaction is that Obama was either born in Kenya, 'cause his mother came over prior to his birth and couldn't get back home before he was born. Because what's filed on his website appears to be a registration of birth --

BOYLES: Yes.

CORSI: -- not the document generated by the hospital when you're born.

BOYLES: That's right. That's right.

CORSI: And I think that there's a discrepancy there, and there's some reason Obama's not telling us what hospital he was born in. That's another way of answering the question: Ask Obama what hospital he was born in in Hawaii. Check the records from that hospital.

[...]

CORSI: I got to tell you, Peter, from my experiences in Kenya, you know, The Obama Nation, the rebuttal I've written still has not been answered. My book is 100 percent true. And they've called me all kinds of names.

BOYLES: Oh, sure.

CORSI: They're willing to arrest you. They're hiding documents in the Obama campaign. The Obama campaign is deathly afraid in the last weeks of this campaign the American public will need to know the truth. And they're even willing to have me arrested in Kenya to have that -- they don't want -- this is how desperate the Obama campaign is to prevent the American people from knowing who Obama truly is.

BOYLES: Hmm. When are you gonna be back in the U.S.?

CORSI: We're coming back on Saturday, Peter.

BOYLES: OK.

[...]

BOYLES: The story continues now with the arrival of this man. Please say good morning. Welcome to 630 KHOW. He's an attorney in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, Philip Berg. Mr. Berg, good morning.

BERG: Good morning. How are you doin', sir?

BOYLES: I'm well. Listen, where is Lafayette Hill? I grew up in Pittsburgh. Where's Lafayette Hill?

BERG: Oh, right outside of Philadelphia.

BOYLES: OK. About your background, where you went to law school -- some of the things about you first.

BERG: Sure. I was a former deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania. I went to the University of Toledo law school in Toledo, Ohio. Politically, Democrat my whole life; 31 years a committee person; former chairman of the Democratic Party, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; member of the Democratic State Committee for eight years; Democratic candidate in the primary for governor and the United States Senate. Also, gotta throw in there, 27 years still active as a volunteer, Barren Hill Volunteer Fire Company.

BOYLES: OK. Now, talk about this lawsuit and why you have sued the DNC and the Obama campaign.

BERG: Well, not only Obama campaign, I've sued Barack Obama personally.

BOYLES: OK.

BERG: And the Democratic National Committee. The reason is, for over a year there's been a question of where Barack Obama was born. Is he a natural-born citizen? And significant is, in June of 2008 Obama, on the Obama campaign website, they placed a document there, a certification of live birth from Hawaii, to try to just quiet the whole issue.

Well, turns out that that document, confirmed by two experts, had been altered or changed. They say at the bottom of the document if there's any alteration, the document is invalid. So the storm has gotten bigger and bigger, and then about, oh, now about two months ago, I was called and said, "Are you aware of this situation?" And I said, "Yeah, I've heard somethin' about it." And they said, and people told me, "Well, it's definite. It's definite that he is not a natural-born citizen, and you're the only attorney in the country who has brass you-know-whats to file this kind of suit."

That's how I got into it. I checked it out, researched it, and about two weeks later, on August 21st of this year, I filed the lawsuit asking that the court bar him from even being nominated at the Democratic National Convention. The judge did not grant the TRO, or temporary restraining order, but the case has proceeded now. And what we're doing is, we're just asking for documentation. Prove me wrong. I've made challenges; I'll make it again on your station. Barack Obama, prove me wrong. Show me a certified copy, an official copy that we can even secure to get permission to get it, of your birth certificate, number one.

Number two, any other birth certificates that have changed your name over the years because of your possible, and we definitely think, adoption. Number three, an oath of allegiance is what happens when you go out of the country for a period of time, and you can come back and take an oath of allegiance. And more important now, our further research has determined that it appears that Obama was and probably still is a citizen of Indonesia, and therefore he would need a certification of citizenship, which you get after you go through immigration. Just for your listeners, bottom line is, we claim that he is not a natural-born citizen.

[...]

CALLER: I checked my birth certificate. I was born in San Diego, my wife was born in General Roads, and she has a certificate of live birth also. So maybe, back in these days, in the '50s --

BOYLES: I got a birth certificate, and I was born in the '40s.

CALLER: Yeah, well, I'm just sayin' with blacks, maybe they were givin' 'em live births. 'Cause I was born in San Diego in a hospital. She was born in General Roads in a hospital.

BOYLES: And hers says --

CALLER: Certificate of live birth.

BOYLES: All right. What do you make of that?

CALLER: Maybe that's what they were givin' Negroes back then.

BOYLES: All right; Mr. Berg.

BERG: Well, very interesting, because you say "Negroes," and it's interesting, or black. One of the certifications of live birth which they have put forth, they mention that his race is African, and there's no -- no one was called African back in 1961.

—C.H.