News Roundup for 4/26/11

Birther-Mania!

-Headline of the day-
"Fact-Checking's Got Nothing To Do With It."

With Donald Trump reinvigorating the "birther" conspiracy theory, news people are looking again at the evidence and discovering the obvious -- reality hasn't changed recently and Barack Obama was still born in Hawaii. CNN looked into it and confirmed it. Even Fox News -- which would be the remaining place a birther might expect to find refuge -- has closed the book on the issue. "Fox News can confirm the president of the United States is a citizen of the United States," foxbot Shep Smith told his audience. "Period."

But these are not the voices of reason. No, that title would fall to The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wonders why the media even bothers.

"Expect [CNN's] investigation to convince about four people, total," he writes.

"People, very often, believe what they want and then attach those 'facts' which help them along in those beliefs," he explains. "If you believe CNN is just another tool of the corrupted lamestream media, why would you believe any of their 'investigations?'"

According to Coates, a better question to ask than whether or not Obama is a citizen would be, "Why does a large swath of America, virtually all of it conservative and white, believe that Obama isn't a citizen?"

I can take a stab at that: Racism... And stupidity. And gullibility. And craziness. And talk radio. And fear. And a complete lack of anything remotely similar to critical reasoning skills. And heavy drinking.

I guess the answer's pretty complicated. (The Atlantic)


-Atlas Sucked: Part II-
The awfulness of Atlas Shrugged is quickly becoming legendary. And the nearly universally bad reviews are making things even worse. According to the report, "at some locations, distributor Rocky Mountain Pictures will be writing checks to theaters to cover the difference between receipts and operating expenses" in order to keep the film running on their screens.

This could either be seen as a bribe or as renting an empty theater -- you pick. (New York Post)


-Bonus HotD-
"Why No Feminist Praise for 'Atlas Shrugged'?"

Andy Breitbart's Big Hollywood blog would like to know the answer to this, because the movie has a female hero, which automatically qualifies it for Feminist Movie of the Century.

If you ask me, I think feminists aren't praising it for the same reason everyone else isn't.

It sucks. (Big Hollywood)