The right side of the blogosphere is in a snit over a phone interview of Michelle Obama posted by African Press International. Only thing is, the Obama campaign says it’s a complete fabrication.
What API reported as Mrs. Obama’s words are fairly benign, but enough to get a segment of the blogosphere riled up. In an incredibly poorly spelled and punctuated post, API said she criticized them for supporting “American white racists” who had made an issue of Obama’s adoption by his Indonesian stepfather. Strangely based in Norway and publishing via WordPress, API also reported Mrs. Obama told them “not to dig that which will support evil people who are out to stop her husband from getting the presidency,” and that black people who opposed Obama did so “because of envy.”
Jake Tapper, ABC News’ Senior National Correspondent based in the network’s Washington bureau, has word from the Obama campaign that the interview API claims to have conducted is “100% bogus.”
He writes:
“This morning my inbox is filled with the ‘WHY ARENT YOU COVERING THIS?’ e-mails on the subject. The answer is: because it doesn’t appear to be in any way real.”
If you think ABC News is too liberal and somehow less credible than API—established, so the blog header says, in 2006 and virtually invisible in Google search results other than the blog posts mentioning this very controversy—then maybe you’ll believe the National Review, conveying from campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor, “The answer is no, it’s not real, the report is made up. She did not speak to the organization.”
API, which seems to be in pretty tight with, or likes at least to make mention of smear-master Jerome Corsi and misspells words like “Farakhan” and “innoguration,” is sticking to its story, and says if you call them, they’ll tell you the same. They provided their phone number in an update if you’d like to verify with them.
According to a subsequent post, API says it will release audio recording of the phone call “when we are satisfied it is not intended to be misused in any way or for any gains by an group.”
Or, my guess anyway, as soon as they can create one. The better question for ABC would be why they killed a 2006 whistleblower report by former ABC investigative reproter Rebecca Abrahams about how evoting machine company Diebold rigs elections, or why nobody’s talking about Stephen Spoonamore and Mike Connell just a few short weeks before the election. And if candidate wives are going to be a big controversy, Verizon and AT&T rushing out to Sedona to install special cellular towers just for Cindy McCain should be a bigger one.
