If the tea party organizers didn't want to hear what Joseph Farah, founder/publisher of World Net Daily had to say regarding the issue of Barack Obama's birth certificate, the tea party organizers would not have invited Farah as a speaker.
We've covered the issue previously and believe WND's coverage has lacked the benefit of material we've found but nonetheless we believe in freedom of speech as a guaranteed right as all other rights.
Even if the speech is not exactly supportable.
What's interesting about Farah's comments to Breitbart:
"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."
We agree with that to some extent. Journalism should ask questions in an effort to seek truth, no matter what the truth shows.
but oftentimes, some issue or some factuality must be proven, especially when entire careers are fairly often built on fallacies... Michael Moore and Al Gore come to mind
Some things do need to be proven by journalists as they often are the only ones with access to the people who make the errors and publish the hype and lies.
Barring that, we'll settle for proven factualities after the right questions are asked in an effort to find the truth, no matter whom the truth hurts or what it shows.
Net the Truth Online
The Tea Party Splatters
by Samuel P. Jacobs
As the grassroots movement prepares for its first big bash of 2010, internal dissent, finger-pointing, and paranoia could stunt its growth.
How do you take a spontaneously erupting grassroots phenomenon fueled by rebel anti-government rage, and mold it into a coherent political movement?
Not very easily, it turns out. That much is becoming clear, as 600 members of disparate groups from across the country prepare to descend next month on Nashville for the first National Tea Party Convention. The group’s big coming-out party is threatened by a rash of infighting, finger-pointing and paranoia.
The stars of the movement, such as they are, will be out: Going Rogue author, former GOP vice-presidential nominee, and newly minted Fox News contributor Sarah Palin; Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann; and prominent birther Joseph Farah, the editor of WorldNetDaily, among them. But a number of Tea Party activists recoil at the very idea that their movement should have stars—and are steering clear because they don’t want to follow any one leader. And FreedomWorks, the nonprofit headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey—and the group that helped foster the early growth and development of the Tea Party insurgency—has decided to stay away.
“We would strongly oppose any person or organization becoming the movement,” says Adam Brandon, press secretary for FreedomWorks, in explaining his group’s absence. “At that point, it crashes into the mountain.”
Brandon was complimentary of the organizers of the event: Tea Party Nation, a group founded by Tennessee defense lawyer Judson Phillips, who says he aims to make a profit on the event and turn money over to conservative causes. “Let a million flowers bloom,” Brandon says. But he says FreedomWorks favors a “different model” of activism. At the group’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, a book called The Starfish and The Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations is required reading.
“If you look at the March on Washington,” Brandon says, referring the event that FreedomWorks organized last September which brought tens of thousands of anti-government-spending protesters to the Capitol, “there was a reason why we didn’t bring big names.” Instead of heading to Nashville, FreedomWorks will bring a few dozen activists to Washington later in February to compare notes on best protest practices.
Armey’s crew is not the only one grumbling about the coming bash. The Tea Party Patriots, an umbrella group which organizes nationwide and helped FreedomWorks rally turnout for the September protest, are irritated about another organization planning to attend: The Tea Party Express, a group with deep ties to a Republican consulting firm. The Patriots complained to Talking Points Memo that the Express crowd is compromised by their Republican relationships—and therefore anathema to the grassroots. But they should beware the holier-than-thou act: The Patriots work closely with FreedomWorks, which is backed by the likes of Exxon Mobil and billionaire conservatives Richard Scaife and Steve Forbes. Each group seems determined to lay claim to the true Tea Party mantle—and in the process, elbow out people who ought to be allies.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x509671
February 6, 2010 12:10 PM
Birther in Hot Water at Tea Party Meet
Font size Print E-mail Share 301 comments Posted by Charles Cooper 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.)
...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." ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/06/blogs/coopscorner/entry6180845.shtml
Was at a Tea Party When a Birther Rally Broke Out
Posted on February 6, 2010, 4:23PM | Nick Gillespie
Former Reasoner David Weigel is covering the Nashville Tea Party convention for the Washington Independent and reports on this argument between World Net Daily's Joseph Farah and Big Hollywood/Government/Journalism's Andrew Breitbart over Farah's speech, which went long on discussions of Obama's birth certificate
http://reason.com/blog#article_139148
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