Monday, August 3, 2009

The "Birther Movement" For Dummies


The woman who gave "birth" to the birther movement, loses it on national teevee.


The segment was, from the very beginning, a train wreck. It started with Taitz asking how much time she'd be given to respond -- not exactly the kind of question anchors like to get, as it means you're actually eating in to the time scheduled for your segment -- and spiraled swiftly downward from there, with Taitz calling host David Shuster a "Brownshirt" and Shuster asking Taitz if it was true that NBC had offered her a car to bring her to the studio, but "you refused because it was a Muslim sounding name with the driver." (Taitz said it was not true.)

There's a good argument to be made, one I'm normally sympathetic to, that people like Taitz shouldn't be getting airtime, same as anyone else advocating a completely debunked but disturbingly popular conspiracy theory. (When's the last time you heard someone on MSNBC saying we didn't land on the moon?)

But in this case, I think this interview actually served a purpose, as Taitz did a fair amount of damage to her cause all by herself. Anyone who was on the fence and watched the interview could not possibly come away from it thinking she's credible.



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