Does the Mainstream Media Lie by Omission?

The writer of the following article publishes a very successful local newspaper called the “Rhino Times.”  John Hammer is a 33 year newspaper veteran.  He has a big local following in Greensboro, North Carolina, and thinks big.  One of the recurring themes of USAWatchdog.com is something I call “The Soft Truth.”  It happens frequently because the mainstream media does cheap superficial stories and ignores what I call the “Hard Truth.”  Hammer’s piece is less about taking President Obama down and much more of an indictment of what the mainstream media is NOT telling you.  Is an omission the same as a lie?  I think it is when it makes things look better than they really are, and Mr. Hammer feels the same way.  Please enjoy this well researched article.   I have the permission from Mr. Hammer to reprint it for USAWatchdog.com readers. –Greg Hunter–

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By John Hammer

Guest Writer for Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

The mainstream media have protected President Barack Hussein Obama for as long as there have been articles about him. The mainstream media consider it racist to question anything about his background, upbringing or education.

Obama’s popularity is dropping and continues to drop, and now the mainstream media, led by The New York Times, have left simple protection behind and are going with boldfaced lies. The New York Times on Thursday, August 5, ran an article under the headline “President and Illinois Stay at Arm’s Length.” In that article, Matt Bai states, “Unlike some past presidents, Mr. Obama has no chronically embarrassing relatives – no unpredictable brother like a Billy Carter or a Roger Clinton to crowd the gossip pages, no grown children like Patti Davis to publicly disavow his policies.”

Incredible. It’s not entirely false. Although Obama does have such relatives, the mainstream media refuse to write about them, so they don’t embarrass him as much as they would if the news media wrote more about his relatives as they have written about the relatives of other presidents, both Democrats and Republicans. Why don’t they write about Obama’s relatives? Is it because to do so would be considered racist? Or is it because to do so would be embarrassing to Obama, and the press has never worshipped a president like they worship Obama? Probably a little of both.

Obama has an aunt from Kenya who was living in dilapidated government housing in Boston and was in this country illegally. If President Ronald Wilson Reagan had had an Irish aunt who had snuck into this country illegally and was living in a public housing project in Boston, do you think it might have been big news? The stories about Obama’s aunt were big in British newspapers, but not so much in American newspapers. Remarkably, after Obama was elected president, the federal government decided that his aunt could stay in this country legally. The New York Times pointed out repeatedly on its website that Obama did not intervene. Obama is not just the president, he is an extremely wealthy individual. Why is his aunt living at taxpayers’ expense?

According to the London Times, Obama’s “Uncle Omar” was evicted from his one bedroom apartment in Boston for being over $2,000 behind on his rent.

Obama wrote about his African relatives affectionately in his book Dreams from my Father, but he doesn’t appear to do anything to help them.

And Obama has a lot of African relatives. Obama’s father had children with at least four women. After he left Obama and his mother in Hawaii, Obama Sr. went back to Kenya and had more children with his first wife, whom he never divorced.

Obama has a host of relatives living without running water or electricity in Africa. Some of them came to his inauguration. One of his brothers came to the inauguration in a sweater and blue jeans. Imagine if Roger Clinton had showed up at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in blue jeans. Do you think that might have been news?

Obama has a brother George who, according to the London Telegraph, was living in a hut that measured 6 feet by 9 feet. He said he was living on less than a dollar a month.

Why hasn’t President Obama helped his family? He is worth millions of dollars. Before he became a public figure, he and his wife, Michelle, gave almost nothing to charity. But doesn’t it seem like spending a few thousand dollars to help your family would be the right thing to do? If Obama sent his brother George $12, he would double his yearly income.

Obama has a brother who lives in China and exports goods to the US. When Obama traveled to China he met briefly with his brother. That visit probably made millions of dollars for his brother, because the Chinese saw that he really could meet with the president of the United States. Doesn’t that seem like news that should be widely reported? Obama’s brother in China has written a book about being raised by Obama Sr., a book that it seems President Obama, who didn’t know his father, might be interested in reading. But Obama told a reporter he had not read it.

One of Obama’s brothers is a radical Muslim. It is also true that Obama went to a Muslim school when he was living in Indonesia. His defenders say that it was not a radical Muslim school, but they don’t deny that it was a Muslim school.

Very little is actually known about Obama’s upbringing and personal history. But what is accepted as the truth about his past come from his two autobiographies. However, in his first book he admits to creating composite characters and changing people’s names.

Obama also admits studying the Quran in school in Indonesia. His younger sister Maya Soetoro-Ng was quoted by The New York Times as saying, “My whole family was Muslim, and most of the people I knew were Muslim.”

One of Obama’s teachers in Indonesia says that Obama not only studied the Quran but took a class to memorize the Quran in Arabic, which would not be done by anyone who was not a devoted Muslim.

A childhood friend described Obama as someone who enjoyed playing football and marbles and as being a very devout Muslim.

It appears that one reason Obama has distanced himself from his own family, including his brother Malik, who was the best man at his wedding, is because Malik is described as a militant Muslim. Obama was also the best man at Malik’s wedding.

The mainstream media is willing to allow Obama to change even his own autobiography so that now he was never a Muslim. There are school records and people who say otherwise.

The huge question here is why does Obama feel that he has to deny his heritage? He is not responsible for the kind of school his parents put him in or the type of religious institution they made him attend. Why does Obama feel that he cannot admit that he did go to a Muslim school and was being raised to be a devout Muslim? He writes about Quran class in his autobiography, but now that personal history is being rewritten by the White House, and the mainstream media are allowing it to be done.

This is not ancient history. The New York Times had a team of reporters work for months to try and come up with a story about Sen. John McCain having an affair with a female lobbyist. But The New York Times can’t spare a reporter to go to Indonesia and interview people who taught Obama or went to school with Obama. Most schools keep records. The mainstream media have certainly given us full background on other presidents. Obama not only gets to write his own personal history, but when some of what he has written becomes inconvenient, then he gets to rewrite it.

Being raised a Muslim would go a long way toward explaining why Obama left the prime minister of Israel in his office and went upstairs to the residence to eat dinner. A diplomatic insult of that degree is difficult to comprehend unless there is more to it than not liking the way the meeting was going.

, , ,

It is so interesting that Democrats running for office this November are running away from Obama as fast as they ran toward him in 2008. When Obama was running for president, the stage didn’t appear to be big enough to hold all of the Democratic candidates who wanted to be seen with him.

Now they hide in a closet when they hear that Obama is coming to town. The mainstream media have to report on such behavior, but it’s not considered big news.

When Obama went to Texas this week he was greeted at the airport by Republican Gov. Rick Perry, but the Democratic candidate for governor, Bill White, was as far away from Austin as he could get. Fortunately for White, Texas is a big state and his duties on the campaign trail kept him as far away from the president as possible. This was reported on page A12 of The New York Times.

Some might think that the president being dissed by members of his own party in the country’s second biggest state was big news, but the unbiased journalists at The New York Times keep making the unbiased decision that derogatory news about the president is not important and good news about the president is of the utmost importance.

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Yet another example of The New York Times pulling out all the stops, including the one that reads “honesty,” when it comes to protecting their president: Paul Krugman, a columnist for The New York Times, went after Minnesota Congressman Paul Ryan for Ryan’s plan to get the country out of this economic mess. Ryan calls his plan “A Road-map for America’s Future.”

Krugman wrote, “Mr. Ryan isn’t offering fresh food for thought; he’s serving up leftovers from the 1990s, drenched in flimflam sauce.”

Krugman is critical of a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which he claims that Ryan misrepresented.

But it is not the CBO that is charged with evaluating a plan like Ryan’s, it is the job of the Joint Committee on Taxation. This is not something that the average man on the street knows, but you would expect Krugman to know it. Instead Krugman used the figures from the Tax Policy Center, which he describes as nonpartisan. It is funded by the Brookings Institute, which is considered a left-wing organization by conservatives.

It is funny, but according to the mainstream media, left-leaning organizations like the Brookings Institute are considered non-partisan, but right-leaning organizations like the Heritage Foundation are never considered anything but right wing. It all depends on where you are standing.

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What we know about Obama is basically what he has told us. According to Obama, in his time as a community organizer his job was to organize the community so that it would get more assistance from the government. He wasn’t organizing the community to work on its own, or complete its own projects, but to get the government to give it more money, and that appears to be his solution to problems.

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John Hammer, a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Duke University, has been the editor of The Rhinoceros Times since it was founded in 1991.  He began his journalistic career in 1977 at Halifax County: This Week in eastern North Carolina and has won numerous awards from the North Carolina Press Association.  Before becoming editor of The Rhino Times Hammer worked as a news director, bouncer, bartender, missionary, free lance writer,  English as a foreign language teacher, and as the deputy director of operations for Electric Vehicles, SA.

The Rhinoceros Times is a weekly newspaper, that covers the political scene in Greensboro and High Point, North Carolina, from a conservative point of view.  (Click here to go to Rhinotimes.com)  John Hammer’s column is called “Under the Hammer”.  The Rhino Times also features columns and articles by renowned science fiction author Orson Scott Card and recently published a 92-part series giving an inside look at the Greensboro Police Department by New York Times best-selling author Jerry Bledsoe.  It is the most successful conservative alt-weekly in the country.

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Comments
  1. John Bernard

    This analysis is long overdue. Obama is the first president I can remember, and I remember quite a few going back to Harry Truman, about whom the media did not write endless tripe about his childhood. Where are the boy hood f friends to comment about his youth? Did he play baseball? I saw a picture with him holding a baseball bat. What were his childhood interests? Who was his third grade teacher? They always throw that one in. What about his college girlfriends or for that matter male friends. You know, the ones he abused drugw with; according to his autobiography.

    He was obviously a Muslim for some part of his life as one may not attend a Muslim madras without being of the faith. What happened when he embraced Christianity, albeit a perverted form? Was granted a dispensation from apostasy? Does he drink alcohol? No matter if he doesn’t but he does use tobacco. Why does he give obeisance to senior Muslims in particular the Saud family who are the guardians of Mecca? Why does he remember the evening call to prayer from the minaret as “the most beautiful sound”?

    These are just a few things that any modern “journalist” might pursue. You are not racist for simply being curious about who in the world is the real President of the USA.

  2. NConvissar

    Hasn’t anyone read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm?”

  3. David Conrad

    Hi Greg,

    Great article by John. He is a lot like you …. he calls it like he sees it. Wish we had more like you.

    • Greg

      Thanks David.
      Greg

  4. MarkM

    That was good!

    John Bernard and NCovissar make good points too.

    markm

  5. George

    I ve read the Rhino for years! Nice article Mr Hammer.

  6. BRIAN

    To quote don henley, in the song dirty laundry…”I just have to look good i dont have to be clear….come and whipser in my ear, give me dirty laundry….” well, in this case, UNLESS ITS ABOUT A DEMOCRAT!! If anyone reading this doesnt know yet, the only real sources for news are this site, naturalnews.com, and coast to coast am. Other than that, we are on our own people. And thats a good thing!!!

    • Greg

      Thank You Brian for the nice words and support!
      Greg

  7. carol smith

    What was your purpose or goal in giving voice to this writer? So his brother wore a sweater and jeans. So what? How petty? I did not learn anything of value from this article.On occasion I read the National Enquirer for the latest gossip not your website. Please, no more.

    • Greg

      Carol Smith,
      I knew I was running a risk of looking one-sided with this article but there were too many good examples of where the press lied by omission. Omissions in reporting are why the public is in the dark about the very serious economic problems we face here in the U.S. This story was more about the actions of the mainstream press and less about President Obama. By the way, I have no great love for the Republicans either. If this site would have been up when Bush 43 was in office I would have been just as critical. This country is in real financial trouble and BOTH parties are to blame. If you or anyone wants to write a rebuttal, I will post it. This story was not gossip but a serious look at what the mainstream press failed to tell the public about the leader of the free world. Obama is not Lindsay Lohan but we know way more about her than him, and he carries the nuclear “football”. Thank you for your point of view and your comment. I would appreciate your continued support. You are always free to speak your mind here.
      Respectfully,
      Greg

  8. MikeD

    I don’t think it’s so much the potential embarrassment to Obama as it is the worship. These folks in the MSM believe in the coming of a political messiah — a modern-day Robin Hood who will rob from the rich, give to the poor, and we’ll all go skipping through Sherwood Forest singing a politically correct, non-religious, non-offensive version of Kumbaya and live happily ever after.

    Very informative article. Most of the info on his family I never knew. That’s why I’m a regular here.

    • Greg

      Thank you MikeD. I think Mr. Hammer did a very good job of researching this article. Put Together all in one article was shocking to me.
      Greg

      • MarkM

        Hello Greg and MikeD:

        Mike, you used the word “worship.” I agree with your theme.

        For most human beings, human nature forces us to “believe” in something. If you don’t believe in a Judeo-Christian ethos, or a Budhist ethos, or an Islamic ethos, et allia, you will fall for a messiah, a gaya, or a tree. Global Warming is a religion. Neo-Marxism is a religion. The belief in our modern-day messiah is religous based.

        To a Carol Smith people who are critical of our modern-day messiah are infadels at the worst, or sinners at best. No amount of logic or rational discussion will change their subconscious-based belief system. Once you cross the line by being critical of Obama, they lock into an emotional plane of thought, or first stage thinking. AKA, knee-jerk reactions.

        “If you do not believe in something, you will fall for anything!”

        Disclaimer:
        I believe in a Judeo-Christian ethic that has evolved through time. The Tora/Bible should never be taken literally as there are too many contradictions within them. They are rough guidelines. History, science, rational thought, and philosophy finish-out my belief system. My learning process is not over; if it were, I would be dogmatic like Obama, radical Imams, Nancy Pelosi, et allia.

        thanks,
        markm

  9. Rachael

    I found your site from Google after searching for information on the way the media lies and deceives the American public. I want to know what we can do about this? This is very important. What do you recommend???

    • Greg

      Rachael,
      Keep reading sites like this one and many others. There is lots of good info on the web that never sees the light of day on mainstream media. Thank you for your comment.
      Greg

  10. Stephen Clifton

    Either the press is so blinded by the warm and fuzzy “hope” speeches or they are complicit in trying to keep this guy popular. Objectivity went way out of the window long ago.

    I personally don’t care about Obama’s childhood or his faith or his college girlfriends but I do care deeply about the financial situation in this country. If the media is willing to distort or ignore something as trivial as Obama’s relatives living in poverty in the US then why should we trust them to accurately report on the economy. Simple answer is that we can’t.

    I’m not sure if the sky is falling yet or if the president is a manchurian candidate but I will keep working hard at my job saving money to rid myself of debt should a deeper downturn emerge from all of this. Better to hope for the best but don’t let the “hope and change” feel good warm and fuzzies rob you of your ability to think critically.

    Stephen

    • Greg

      Stephen,
      Thank you for your support!!
      Greg

  11. Mike

    Greg Hunter writes about wealth consolidation regularly. That wealth, allowed by Saint Reagan’s elimination of anti trust laws now consolidates information dissemination. What is referred to as Mainstream Media is overwhelming “conservative”, whatever that term used to mean.

    The scrutiny Obama “enjoys” is twenty fold what his predecessor received. The appointed Bush even gagged the icon of CBS “news” over scrutiny of his military record. We suffered an 8 year drought on any domestic instrospection and the NY Times was complicit in that aesthetic.

    Mr Hammer does tip his cards when he describes the “insult” to a foreign diplomat… basically heresay and a stretch in story continuity. But that one sentence reveals Mr Hammers motivation. The Israeli lobby is perpetual motion spinning.

    Greg, our current economic mess is the result of a 30 affliciton of deregulating and worshipping business. One of the political parties has no other concern than business. Business is amoral and humanity is the collateral damage of profit. Unless humanity can mount a response to runaway business, all the doomsday prognostications that you, Greg Hunter, post nearly every day are a virtual certainty.

    Glad to know you host guest writers invested in that outcome. Writers invested in the distraction of genuine issues…. and apparently your readers.

    There is enough topical material to question this president on and he daily fails liberals more than he could ever rankle “conservatives”. Adding in this type of garbage displays a willful lack of intellectual curiosity about the real ill’s our society faces.

    With that, I’ll go upstairs to eat.

    • Greg

      Mike,
      You make some good points but the fact remains we knew plenty about Bush (43). Alleged cocaine use, going AWOL from the military, even heard about his daughters drinking. We did not get the same level of scrutiny about President Obama. But let me make one thing clear, BOTH Republicans and Democrats share the blame for the economic mess we are in now. As far as your assertion that “One of the political parties has no other concern than business.” You have to be kidding. Goldman Sachs was a huge contributor to the Obama campaign along with GE and may others. The banks are still receiving big ongoing bailouts. I could name several including a $300 billion dollar bond back up provided at extremely low cost by the FDIC. (Goggle TLGP) Democratic Senator Dick Durban was quoted last year as saying something to the effect that the banks “owned” Congress. That means BOTH parties. Bill Clinton abolished the Glass–Steagall Act with the passage of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act in 1999. How do you think that bankrupt Wamu and bankrupt Wachovia could get into trouble securitizing mortgage debt? Bush 43 fought 2 wars with a tax cut and a credit card! I could go on and on. The Democrats and Republicans are one body and two heads. Democrats just happen to be in office right now. I am sorry you feel the way you do about this story but the press gives the President Obama very favorable coverage. Thank you for support and comment. Oh, and by the way, as far as CBS, it did a stupid story with fake documents while the press ignored contractors appointed by the Bush White House ripped off the taxpayers by $billions in Iraq. CBS tried to embarrass a sitting President 6 weeks before an election and they got a pie in the face!!!! They deserved it! Thank you again. I appreciate your point of view and as always your comments are welcome here.

      Greg

  12. Elihu E. O'Dowd

    Hi Greg,

    Nice article!

    IMHO, Obama is like the Biblical Priest “Melchizedek”, in that he has no background. One major difference; Melchizedek was a person of Light; Obama is acting as a person of Darkness!

    Not a conspiracy buff myself, I cannot help but believe that ‘Zero’ hasn’t been personally groomed for this position for many years. By whom? I don’t know…I’m not sure I want to know. Too many things just ‘fell into place’ too easily to usher him into the White House! BTW, is calling it the White House now racist? I’m not certain anymore.

    Not reporting truth IS the same as reporting lies; at least in God’s sight (James 4.17.). Besides, the lamestream media wouldn’t know the truth if it hit them in the a$$. Like Tom Cruise’s character in “A Few Good Men”, and Pilate in the Gospel of John (18.38.), neither knew the truth, not did they really care too.

    One more comment please: If Obama is a true Christian (and all real evidence points otherwise), then I’m not!

    Thanks!

    E.

    • Greg

      Eli,
      You make good points but both parties are bad for the country! Thank you for the comment.
      Greg

  13. Georgiaboy61

    Mike, “The scrutiny Obama “enjoys” is twenty fold what his predecessor received.”

    Sorry, Mike, but that is baldfaced nonsense. The NY Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the rest of the leftist press went into the tank for Obama long before the election, and practically dragged him across the finish line. Obama couldn’t have been elected without the complicity of his lapdogs in the media, who failed utterly in their duty to perform as the fourth estate. BHO has been allowed to hide vast parts of his past, which lie unexamined but for the internet -because the press left them that way. Once the press didn’t bother to look, neither did anyone else.

    Here’s an easy proof of the huge (perhaps justified, depending on your views) coverage Bush received. Count the number of front-page stories that Abu Ghraib got, and that Gitmo got, under Bush, and then compare how often the MSM has mentioned Gitmo since BHO took over. It fell off the front page when Obama got to town…. presto – no more story! Why? It ceased being one the moment Bush left office, and the leftist media, who hated him, didn’t need that story with which to beat him over the head.

    In closing, it isn’t simply the amount of coverage, though that is important; it is the quality and type of coverage. Obama has had a free ride thus far; the press is still getting tingles up their collective legs at him, except for talk radio and FNC. Bush was hammered for eight long years, even a few days after 9-11, because the old-line leftist eastern media hated him, and still do. I have no love for the man, but the disparity in coverage couldn’t be more obvious.

  14. Georgiaboy61

    Elihu E. O’Dowd wrote, “Not a conspiracy buff myself, I cannot help but believe that ‘Zero’ hasn’t been personally groomed for this position for many years. By whom? I don’t know…I’m not sure I want to know. Too many things just ‘fell into place’ too easily to usher him into the White House!”

    Well-said, and I couldn’t agree more. The ways were greased for Obama, no doubt… probably by a wealthy patron in the Saudi Royal family, or perhaps by Soros and his crowd. Maybe both. When the top finally blows off the secrecy surrounding Obama, and it will, sooner or later, the result will be the greatest political scandal in U.S. history, if not a constitutional crisis as well. This man is indeed a Manchurian president…

  15. Jeff

    Greg;
    Like George I’m a long time reader of “The Rhino Times”. Thank you for giving Mr. Hammer a wider audience for his well written article.

    • Greg

      Thank you Jeff.
      Greg

  16. Bob

    The TV news should add more leg shots. As the lies get bigger the girls wear less. I been reading more so called news reports about the drug wars in dear old Mexico. I think it’s should be called a revolution but the news reporters still like the headline Drug war. PEACE

    • Greg

      Bob,
      Funny and well said at the same time. Thank you for your truth and humor!
      Greg

  17. Tom

    Greg that article by John is excellent and very telling of what we have come to in this country. See no evil (about the Prez) speak no evil.

  18. Gail Brasfield

    You are a joke….Cant you leave the man alone….

    • Greg

      Gail,
      We are in deep financial trouble here in America. If you remain open minded, you might learn something. Thank you for your comment but not the name calling.
      Greg

  19. jane

    Hello Sir ,
    Just found this post..It was applicable then it is even more applicable now two years later…please repost this….Could you modify it to include the choosing of this administration’s denial to aide our Navy Seals as they requested help three times….They were told to Stand Down…I put it to you sir this man who maybe the President of the United States does NOT deserve to be the Commander in Chief….The loved ones of the four that perished deserve better…They lost their lives not because of what happened but beacause of what did not.The ignoring the importance of 911 is and cannnot be justified as so many people are stiil cognizant of that day and the build up of the days prior…For this administration to continue to play a shell game of blame gives so many of us a clear snapshot of just how ugly seeking out another term has become…Like your post sir,,Woof LOA (Love of AMerica)

    • Greg

      Jane,
      This is beyond sad but criminal negligence. This is outrageous and the MSM will not pursue this one either. This is why so many are totally in the dark about how bad things really are in America. Many will be destroyed and never see it coming. I blame the MSM for abdicating their duties to look out for the public good no matter who is in power.
      Greg

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