Because he was asked: Why did Rick Perry discuss Obama’s birth certificate with Parade magazine last week?
All in all, we can’t tell you.
On cable “news” in the past two nights, you have seen the usual stooges speculating about Perry’s strategy and motives. In this morning’s Washington Post, Ruth Marcus did a bit of the same, then voiced some sensible thoughts:
MARCUS (10/26/11): The matter of Obama’s birth certificate should be a closed case. It is astonishing that a sitting governor, no less a serious candidate for president, would stoop to playing this game.We agree that this should be a closed case. We agree that voters deserve something better than this tired old drivel.
The country is facing serious problems. This will be a fateful election. Voters deserve better than scare tactics and drivel.
Is it astonishing that a governor would stoop to discussing this drivel? If so, the same is true of a major "journalist." With that in mind, let us be the first to criticize Parade’s inane Lynn Sherr.
Why did Perry discuss the birth certificate with Parade? Let us be the first to tell you: In part or in whole, because he was asked! In part or in whole, because Lynn Sherr wasted everybody’s time—and lowered everybody’s IQ—by raising this stupid old topic.
According to the full Parade transcript, it was Sherr, not Perry, who brought this drivel up.
Everyone has whacked Perry for answering. Isn’t it time that sensible people whacked Sherr for asking? Or would that break guild rules?
Let us be the first to tell you: The Q-and-A’s about the birth certificate weren't included in Sunday’s hard-copy Parade. If you read your entire Parade magazine, you didn’t see a single word about this stupid topic.
You have to go the longer, unedited interview to access the now-famous exchange about the birth certificate. And it’s Sherr, not Perry, who raises the topic in that transcript (click here).
No one, including Marcus, has asked why Sherr re-introduced that drivel into the conversation. So let us be the first to ask: As a nation, why do we tolerate hacks like Sherr? Hacks who stage these stupid charades? Hacks who play these low-IQ games? Hacks who pretend to be journalists?
Perry has continued to discuss this topic—for example, when asked about it by John Harwood. He has been criticized for taking a semi-joking approach. But in the full interview with Sherr, it’s clear that he was giving joking answers to earlier questions on other topics.
Why did he talk about the birth certificate? In part or in whole, because he was asked! Because he was asked about this drivel by a journalist who ought to apologize and admit she’s been playing the fool.
Here at THE HOWLER, we’re tired of “journalists” like Sherr. We’re also tired of people like Marcus, who wouldn’t criticize the Sherrs if their lives were at stake. Between Candidate Perry and Journalist Sherr, we would say Sherr was more at fault in the return of this stupid old drivel. But in the press corps, you don’t criticize your peers.
Darlings! It just isn’t done!
Marcus also wastes everyone’s time in her column with remarks about Herman Cain’s on-line ad. But then, everyone in the cable “news” world started with these same topics last night. They’re silly and stupid and fun to discuss. They're perfect for very dumb, disengaged posers, the kind you find on cable.
We live in a downward-spiraling, low-IQ world. The dumbness is putting your nation in peril.
“Journalists” have been mired in this drivel every dumb step of the way.