Hosting Philip Berg, KHOW's Boyles and Martino allowed further falsehoods about Obama's birth certificate

Summary: Hosts Tom Martino and Peter Boyles of 630 KHOW-AM permitted their guest, attorney Philip J. Berg, to repeat on their programs the debunked claim that Sen. Barack Obama has not produced a birth certificate establishing his U.S. citizenship, and thus his eligibility for the presidency. Further, neither Martino nor Boyles asked Berg to substantiate his assertion, also made on both broadcasts, that the copy of Obama's birth certificate posted on the campaign's website is a "forgery."

On the October 22 broadcast of The Troubleshooter and the October 23 broadcast of The Peter Boyles Show, 630 KHOW-AM's Peter Boyles and Tom Martino, respectively, uncritically allowed Pennsylvania attorney Philip J. Berg to repeat the discredited smear that Sen. Barack Obama has not released a valid birth certificate establishing he was born in the United States and therefore could be ineligible to run for president. Berg further claimed on both broadcasts that the copy of Obama's certification of live birth posted on his campaign website is a "forgery." As Media Matters for America repeatedly has documented, the Obama campaign has posted a copy of Obama's birth certificate on its "Fight the Smears" website and reportedly provided the original document to FactCheck.org, whose staff concluded in an August 21 post that it "meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship." A Hawaii Health Department official also reportedly confirmed to PolitiFact.com that Obama's birth certificate is valid.

Also on Boyles' October 23 program, Berg claimed that "about a month ago" Obama "admitted to dual citizenship with Kenya and the United States, according to their campaign website." Boyles did not point out that, in fact, Obama's Fight the Smears website states, citing FactCheck.org, that Obama's father, born in Kenya, "was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.'s children. Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4, 1982." FactCheck.org noted the expiration occurred "automatically" on Obama's 21st birthday.

On October 22, explaining to Martino why he filed his lawsuit asking a federal court rule that Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen, Berg characterized Obama's campaign for president as "a fraud on the American public" and "a disgrace by Obama," whom he labeled "a fraud" and "a phony." Martino then asked him, "Are they taking your lawsuit seriously? Is that the real reason -- people are saying that's the real reason he [Obama] went to Hawaii," to which Berg replied, "I don't believe that, because I think it's too late. He can't come up with a birth certificate from Hawaii. If he had it, he would have had it already." When Martino asked, "Does he have a birth certificate?" Berg said, "I'm sure he has one, but where's it from? I believe it's from Kenya."

Near the end of the interview, Martino told Berg, "People are very upset with me that I even have you on the air. They think it's some kind of heresy, or -- it's more of a religious thing than anything. It sounds so weird to me." Martino then addressed his listeners: "Listen folks, I have all kinds of people on my show. This guy deserves to be heard. He's filing a lawsuit that has not been dismissed." Martino later added:

And I think -- I have to tell Philip Berg this; I don't think Philip Berg is a nut. I think he has a valid lawsuit and deserves to be heard. However, I personally believe that Barack Obama is a citizen based on the certificate of live birth. And I think that he is not insane, and he would not try to pull this off. That's just my gut. The guy seems like an intelligent guy, and he seems -- I don't think he would do it. I don't think at this level you do something that stupid. Philip, that's just my feeling.

Berg made similar remarks the following day on Boyles' show, saying, "[R]ight now, I feel Obama is trying to step on our constitution," and adding that he is "100 percent" certain Obama is not a natural-born citizen: "If he is a natural born-citizen, why hasn't he done the simple thing and put up his birth certificate?" Berg also told Boyles that "[i]n June 2008, a certification of live birth" was "placed onto the Obama campaign's website. Not by me, not by anybody that works for me, but by Obama's people. And that document is a forgery. It's been altered." Boyles did not ask Berg to substantiate his assertion that the birth certificate posted on the Obama campaign's website has been forged and later in his broadcast stated, "I don't know what the truth is. I have no clue."

But as Colorado Media Matters noted after Berg's appearance on Boyles' October 9 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 the right-wing website WorldNetDaily reported on August 23 that a "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.

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, on his October 6 broadcast Martino claimed without noting contradictory evidence that former Fannie Mae executives Franklin Raines and Tim Howard -- whom he blamed for the current financial crisis -- now serve as "chief" economic advisers to Obama's presidential campaign. On his October 17 broadcast, Martino acknowledged that the assertion was false, but claimed that he made the inaccurate claim intentionally as part of an "experiment, as Colorado Media Matters also noted.

From the October 22 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Troubleshooter with Tom Martino:

MARTINO: Have you heard about that lawsuit where they want to make Barack Obama present his birth records? Have you heard about that? There's a guy -- Pennsylvania Democrat Philip Berg. What is his motive? What's goin' on? He wants to, he's filed an actual lawsuit. Let's get him on right now. Philip -- Mr. Berg, you're an attorney yourself; right, Mr. Berg?

BERG: Yes, I am.

MARTINO: And you filed the lawsuit. I've seen you on TV; I've read about you on the Internet. You actually filed a lawsuit.

BERG: Absolutely.

MARTINO: And the lawsuit simply is to make Barack Obama present proof of citizenship?

BERG: Correct. Under our constitution, to run for president there's only three qualifications. One, 35 years of age -- he is; lived in this country 14 years -- he has; and being natural-born citizen -- he's not. And therefore he should step down. This is a fraud on the American public, it's a disgrace by Obama, and also the Democrat leadership of the Democratic National Committee. And we're headed towards a constitutional crisis if this is not resolved. I've been asking now for eight weeks -- since my lawsuit has been filed -- prove me wrong, show me your birth certificate, show me you're natural-born, show me your certificate of citizenship, which would you have received when you came back from Indonesia.

MARTINO: Now, I'm sure you're getting all kinds of accusations.

BERG: Yes.

MARTINO: What is your goal? What is your motive?

BERG: My motive here is and has been -- I'm a lifelong Democrat; my motive here is, the U.S. Constitution must be followed.

MARTINO: Other than -- OK, let's say other than this birth certificate issue, do you like him as a candidate?

BERG: I, you know, I have mixed feelings on him. But I cannot support him because he's not a, in all my investigation he's a fraud, he's a phony. He's not a natural-born citizen. He taught constitutional law; he knows what's up. And --

MARTINO: Are they taking your lawsuit seriously? Is that the real reason -- people are saying that's the real reason he went to Hawaii.

BERG: I don't believe that, because I think it's too late. He can't come up with a birth certificate from Hawaii. If he had it, he would have had it already. Remember, he was in Hawaii right before the Democratic National Convention. I mean, this issue's been around for over a year. Significant is June of 2008 --

MARTINO: Does he have a birth certificate?

BERG: I'm sure he has one, but where's it from? I believe it's from Kenya.

MARTINO: Well, what about this certificate of live birth you see on his website?

BERG: It's a certification of live birth. It should have the same information as a birth certificate, but we don't believe it does, because the document that they put on their website in June 2008 is a forgery. There's changes on it. You can look under and you can see the name Maya underneath it -- which is his half-sister, Maya. They used a different document, a different form. They put it on their website -- that's what's significant -- months before I got involved in this case. And I've been asking all along, "Prove me wrong, show me your birth certificate from the source, and I'll withdraw my lawsuit."

[...]

BERG: I was approached in the beginning of August. And how I was approached is -- because I'm known to take tough cases. I was contacted, and they said to me, "Phil, have you heard about this?" I said, "Yes." They said, "It's for real." I said, "OK." They said, "You're the only attorney in the country who has brass you-know-whats to file a lawsuit like this." And that's how I'm in there. And that's basically the truth. A lot of people would not touch this type of case, but the more I've been involved in this case, I'm a thousand percent convinced that he is not a natural-born citizen. He's a fraud and he's a phony and it's a disgrace, and we have to resolve this now, otherwise we're going to have a major constitutional crisis. And a lot of people are concerned if he doesn't win there's gonna be race riots in this country. And I will gather together all the Republican, Democrat leaders, and all the leadership of every denomination, religion, and to plead with the American public, say, "If there's anyone to blame on this, it's gonna be Barack Obama."

MARTINO: Well, here's the thing. People are very upset with me that I even have you on the air. They think it's some kind of heresy, or -- it's more of a religious thing than anything. It sounds so weird to me. Listen folks, I have all kinds of people on my show. This guy deserves to be heard. He's filing a lawsuit that has not been dismissed. Although this one email says, "It will be dismissed, because failure to state a justifiable claim" or whatever.

BERG: Wouldn't that be a disgrace if it's dismissed on some technicality when the issue comes down is, is he qualified to be president?

[...]

MARTINO: I'll tell you, [caller], and I appreciate it. And I think -- I have to tell Philip Berg this; I don't think Philip Berg is a nut. I think he has a valid lawsuit and deserves to be heard. However, I personally believe that Barack Obama is a citizen based on the certificate of live birth. And I think that he is not insane, and he would not try to pull this off. That's just my gut. The guy seems like an intelligent guy, and he seems -- I don't think he would do it. I don't think at this level you do something that stupid. Philip, that's just my feeling.

BERG: Well, that's your right, and that's your --

MARTINO: However, to show you how open-minded I am, I'm havin' you on.

From the October 23 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: And the critique already is that there is a birth certificate, certificate of live birth -- they're called COLB's -- for Barack Obama. You can see it on his website, "Stop the Smears," and that what you're doing is simply witch-hunting; you're called a racist, you're called all kinds of interesting things. So, just overall, if you would, your background, and then what this lawsuit is about.

BERG: Sure. First off, I'm not a racist, I happen to be white, but I'm also a paid-up life member of the NAACP. And a lot of people think I'm doing this because I'm a Republican, but I'm a lifelong Democrat, having been a committee person for 31 years; chairman of the Democratic Party, excuse me, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; former member of Democratic State Committee for eight years; Democratic candidate for governor and U.S. Senate in the Democratic primaries in Pennsylvania. So, you really can't say that. I'm a former deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania for eight years, and I'm still a member, this is my 26th year as a volunteer fireman for the Barren Hill Volunteer Fire Company fire police. I'm doing this for one reason, and it's a reason that all of your listeners should get behind.

There's nothing more important than our U.S. Constitution. And I'm doing this to enforce our constitution. Right now, I feel Obama is trying to step on our constitution. For president you need three things: You must be 35 years old -- Obama is; you must have lived in this country for 14 straight years -- he has; and you must be a natural-born citizen -- he's not. Now, I know that for 100 percent. If he is a natural-born citizen, why hasn't he done the simple thing and put up his birth certificate? This has been talking for about a year. And significant dates for all your listeners: Before I ever got involved in this, before I thought to get involved -- in June 2008, a certification of live birth -- what you just said, a COLB -- was placed onto the Obama campaign's website. Not by me, not by anybody that works for me, but by Obama's people. And that document is a forgery. It's been altered. You can look at it. But we have two expert reports on our website. You can see the name, Maya, under his name.

BOYLES: Is it his sister's?

BERG: Yes. It's his half-sister, Maya.

BOYLES: Yeah.

BERG: So it's been altered. At the bottom of the document it says, if there's any alteration this document is invalid. Now, they've taken different things, they keep changing a little bit on the website. A group called FactCheck.org comes along and says, "We looked at the same document over at the campaign headquarters, and we have it here on our website, and it's absolutely a valid document." Well, they're showing a different document, because the one on the Obama doesn't have a seal on it. The one FactCheck is showing has a seal on it. But significant is the fact that FactCheck.org is owned by Annenberg of Chicago, and that's where Obama sat on the board with his infamous friend, William Ayers. So I think there's a little conflict of interest there. The simple way to have resolved this -- they're a well-oiled machine, the Obama, and I hope your listeners listen to this -- that, they have so much money, they have people sitting on computers all day long, if someone says something wrong on a blog --

BOYLES: Yeah, I know, they're -- I think they've been targeting us for having you and Corsi.

BERG: OK. If McCain says something they don't like, within hours for most of the day, you have Obama correct it. I even saw one time a tape, a commercial which Obama disagreed with; six hours later they had a new commercial out on the TV. I don't know how they did it that fast. But significant is the fact that my case has now been out there for two months. Other than the lawyers attempting to prolong this case, there's been not one word from their campaign. It just doesn't make sense.

[...]

BERG: Well, recently on their website -- let me, I forgot -- recently about a month ago, and I think to divert attention from Indonesia, which is the real problem for him now, is that he admitted to dual citizenship with Kenya and the United States, according to their campaign website. That really doesn't mean anything anymore, because as far as I'm concerned, even if he would show a birth certificate from Hawaii, the issue really now is Indonesia. And again, if people want to say, well, he's young, and therefore -- then he knows the law, he knows what that certification of citizenship says, if he went through immigration. And if he feels there's some mistake there, two years ago, he should have gone to court and said, I'm thinking of running for president, and there's some technicalities here, and I want the court to work this matter out. It would have worked out one way or the other without a Phil Berg in there, and without any Peter Boyle having a show about this, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know, it just doesn't make sense. So I think that he's aware of these problems; they're ignoring the problem; it's a major problem, and I'm hopeful the court -- if we don't get a decision today or tomorrow, I think, we've been hoping that the judge would, but we're probably gonna file on Monday to the U.S. Supreme Court, because this issue must be resolved. Because if it's not resolved before the election, we have real turmoil after, and if it ends up he gets sworn in, then we deal with impeachment, or different -- such a multitude of problems.

[...]

CALLER: Got a couple of quick things on the attorney, is it Berg?

BOYLES: Yes.

CALLER: I heard him on Tom Martino yesterday, and he was talking about the, you know, a lot of the big names hadn't picked up the story, like Bill O'Reilly, specifically. But I did hear O'Reilly, late last week, I think it was --

BOYLES: He talks about the birth certificate.

CALLER: He talked about it, and he said he had his staff check it out, and he had the birth certificate in front of him. For whatever that was worth.

BOYLES: He -- if you go to the website -- and do whatever the hell you want to do with this story. I just think it's is fascinating talk radio. Go to the website, and you'll see these things, and people have, someone has taken a, and -- I mean, I've looked at it myself -- someone has taken a Magic Marker and taken, crossed out a certificate, and -- you know, brother -- I mean, I just think it's great talk radio. I don't know what the truth is. I have no clue.

—C.H.