Attending the Tea Party Convention in Nashville this weekend, The Washington Independent's always-excellent David Weigel recounts an extraordinary hallway confrontation between online publisher Andrew Breitbart and WorldNetDaily Editor-in-Chief Joseph Farah over the question of President Obama's citizenship. (Here's the video of his speech, courtesy of C-SPAN. It follows Angela McGlowan's pep talk, starting at the 12.10 mark.)
During his speech, Farah said he hoped that Mr. Obama would not be
able to go into any city without seeing signs asking about his bith
certificate. "It's a simple question but it hasn't been answered," he
said, adding that "it's one of the most important questions that we can
be asking."
Following the speech, Farah was cornered by Weigel, who informed
him that Breitbart had dismissed the birther argument as a losing
political argument. When Breitbart later walked by, Farah insisted that
it was "a winning issue." (You can read the entire article but I want
to reproduce this verbatim snippet.)
"It’s not a winning issue."
"It is! It becomes even more of a winning issue when the press abrogates its responsibility–"
"You don’t recognize it as a fundamentally controversial issue that
forces a unified group of people to have to break into different parts?
It is a schism of the highest order."
"Nothing exposes the president’s–"
"Then prove it!"
"The press isn’t asking the question–"
"Prove it!"
"Prove what?"
"Prove your case."
"I should prove, what, a birth certificate that may or may not
exist?" Farah had gotten irritated. "That’s ridiculous. You don’t even
understand the fundamental tenets of what journalism is about, Andrew.
It’s not about proving things. It’s about asking questions and seeking
truth."
Breitbart tensed up after that insult. "Right."
"I know you’re not a journalist, so that’s fine. But don’t diminish people who’ve been doing this for 35 years."
"So you’re going to go on record saying that I’m not a journalist?"
"Are you? I’ve never heard you claim to be. Are you?"
"I’ll let it be answered by you."
"Well, I knew [Matt]Drudge didn’t consider himself a journalist, so
I assumed that you were. … I don’t know, I’m not trying to insult you."
"You did."