The Drudge conspiracy site.

I had an interesting conversation at my place of work the other day.

Re: Obama's Birth Certificate.
I cannot respond to a lot of things at work, have to be all diplomatic and the like. But I am going to post about it here, and lay out the groundwork of a fake conspiracy.

I find it fascinating how internet meme's and Urban legends take off and become truth to some people.

No evidence, just a say so or headline by someone like.....Drudge. I am also using that Drudge example, because that happens to be where that particular tale of the Birth certificates came from.

1st claim: the Birth Certificate is a photoshop. Status, Not true.

Well, this legend was crafted at another right wing site. Drudge just pushed the headline, as he so often does. When it fits in with his ideology.
This particular urban legend also depended upon those who have no knowledge of how PDF's work.

Of course, viewers who didn't let President Obama's short form birth certificate derail their birther fantasies back in 2008 interpreted it exactly as you'd expect, spreading the "layering" claim on sites like conservative messageboard FreeRepublic as proof it was faked.

In fact, the effect was not a sign of foul play at all, but a common tribute of PDF files containing text as an image.
On many PDFs, a feature called OCR (optical character recognition) recognizes the letters in the image and separates them into their own layer. This explains why you're able to highlight and copy raw text from some PDF files even though it's actually not a word processing document.

Many of the other photoshop claims were made by none other than Pam Geller. Ya. That freak. Atlas Shrugs fame. You spend any time there and you have shoes and hair covered in the Guano Loca.

2nd claim: The Whitehouse has admitted that the Birth Certificate was a "fake".

Status. Not true. 

Unless you watch this really doctored video of course, and buy the lines that were placed in Obama's mouth in the editing process.

Be sure to read the "facts" on the bottom of this video if you go over there. OY.
I have had some fun with this kind of thing myself. LOL. But it don't make it so. BTW, some actually beleived this vid, some slammed me for trying to perpetrate a hoax....ETC. Cluebat: This was so badly done, and so obviously a joke.... (to anyone with a brain that is.)

3rd claim: There has been a legitimate Kenyan Birth certificate produced. 

Status, Not true.

And yanno, Orly Taitz used as a credible source? Holy fuckos batman. Seriously? Read about the problems with this one here.

You can get your very own Kenyan Birth Certificate here. Kinda fun!

And how about that part in the Birth Certificate where they list Obama's Father as "African" and not "Negro"?

Well, hell's bells, possibly because that was the answer that was given at that time? That portion of the Birth Certificate is filled in by the parents.

BTW, there were two birth announcements in Hawaii papers of Obama's birth. And at least one was information supplied by the Hospital. Only way to counter that is to show us the DeLorean. OK?

Oh. Drudge will be reporting on this, with a follow up by the World Nut Daily. *rolls eyes*

4th claim: Why are Obama's school records sealed. What is he hiding!

Because all school records are sealed. Duh. As it should be.

Bush's school records were leaked. As in stolen. 

I would surely like to see Bush's military records myself, but those were all sealed and any parts that were released were all redacted with black marker.

Now, that, is hiding something.

5th claim: It doesn't have footprints.

If your birth certificate has footprints, read it carefully. It is not a state-issued document, it is a souvenir from the hospital. The hospital doesn't keep it on file. If you lose it, there are no copies of the footprint anywhere. The state doesn't keep foot or hand prints on infants as they have no use after the infant gains some weight and hydrates all the wrinkles away. (Babies come out wrinkled, a little fluid and they plump right up.) If you take that birth certificate to get a passport, they'll send you back for a state-issued official one.

It is entirely possible that Obama does not have the footie prints souvenir from the Hospital. Things get lost and unlike the actual Birth Certificate they cannot be replaced. I do not have my original Birth Certificate and had to get a new one issued, it looks entirely different than my original. (Which is another Birther Argument, they cannot get the part that newly issued Birth Certificates no matter the birthdate on them, are done by computers) I do not have my baby book that my Mum started. My ex husband managed to get all of that and I think it is in a dump somewhere. (he also kept all the power cords from my PC and peripherals, and one shoe from each pair. Freud would have a field day with that message eh?) Shit happens to stuff, and we all cannot produce original documents from the time of issue.

If you want the most thorough debunking of this Birther crap when talking to actual birthers, file that link I posted above in a safe place.

Drudge insists that he is not left, nor right. But as with all media, what they say is not the literal truth.  That site insists that they just post headlines. Yes. But there is a definite selection process. And when they post a link that proves to be a fabrication which starts a kerfuffle? They never retract or update to show the first link was wrong.

See how that works?

Drudge also pushes anti climate change headlines.  Climate change denial articles are posted. Like the whole climategate thing. But when it was all shown to be a massive mountain of bullshit,  perpetrated by those paid by Exxon.  Drudge didn't post those headlines. If Drudge was all you look at? You would labour under a false impression that the science was all bunk.

(Which clears up an earlier conversation with this same person.)

Recall Clinton's debacle with Lewinsky? That is how Drudge came to be really. The Hedda Hopper of political news aggregators.  It's all stanted crap, that the right wingnuts choose to run with. Hedda, as those who follow history recall was a great McCarthy supporter. She was all gung ho about the Hollywood ban list, and used her soapbox for petty vengence and personal vendettas.

You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. 

And that is exactly what Drudge and the whole Right wing Wurlitzer does. Sadly, some of the readership actually buys it. 

A quote from Slate:

And the long-form certificate proves that the COLB was legitimate and answered all reasonable questions about Obama's birth. If you were "just asking questions" about the COLB, you were not a truth-seeker. You were a fool.

Glen Beck just "asks questions".

Actually, I am fully supportive of asking questions, it is an important part of living in society.

But, as another Internet meme demonstrates, some questions are just there to confuse and muddy what should be clear waters.

Did Glenn Beck Rape And Murder A Young Girl In 1990 is an internet hoax and a grassroots smear campaign that began as an extreme satire of Mr. Beck’s over-the-top interview tactics on his self-titled TV show Glenn Beck, wherein he frequently asks his guests to disprove highly speculative and often outrageous assertions.

This took off like a shot, and yes....some bought into it. Ta da.  Beck freaked out. :)

Questioning Obama's birthplace is a stupid question.  A stupid question that only exists to keep a non controversy, controversial.

Don't tell me what Trump thinks. The dude is a royal dipshit.

Reading Drudge as a leading news source, is just getting one side of a complex story. And most often, not the real one.  

I can't answer at work. But just wanted to say;

Stop reading Drudge. Expand those horizons. Facts are important things. And it took me two minutes with the help of Google, to blow every point out of the fucking water. :)