Fox News' Sammon dismissed "nature of" Corsi falsehoods as "relatively innocuous"

Summary: On Hannity & Colmes, Bill Sammon said of falsehoods in Jerome Corsi's The Obama Nation: "Well, the nature of those inaccuracies, I think, is relatively innocuous. ... The first thing on that 40-page document that the Obama camp points out is that the author got their wedding date wrong -- the year of their wedding wrong. OK. Well, that's not a good thing, but it doesn't go to the ideology of Obama." In fact, Corsi's book also includes a number of falsehoods about Obama's policy positions.

On Hannity & Colmes, Fox News deputy Washington managing editor Bill Sammon said of falsehoods in Jerome Corsi's widely discredited book The Obama Nation: "Well, the nature of those inaccuracies, I think, is relatively innocuous." Referring to the response by Sen. Barack Obama's campaign to Corsi's book, Sammon then stated: "The first thing on that 40-page document that the Obama camp points out is that the author got their wedding date wrong -- the year of their wedding wrong. OK. Well, that's not a good thing, but it doesn't go to the ideology of Obama." In fact, as Media Matters for America has documented, Corsi's book also includes a number of falsehoods about Obama's policy positions.

For instance, in his book, Corsi made false assertions about Obama's Global Poverty Act of 2007; falsely suggested that Obama supports "de-escalat[ing]" troops from Afghanistan; and falsely claimed that Obama "has pledged to reduce the size of the military." Additionally, Corsi falsely claimed that Obama "has yet to answer questions" concerning whether "he stopped using marijuana and cocaine completely in college, or whether his drug use extended into his law school days or beyond."

From the August 15 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

ANDREW WILKOW (Sirius radio host): Are the people that he's writing about, the research that he has done on them, is it factually incorrect?

COLMES: Well, why should we suggest anything is factually correct, given the number of discredited things we've already known he's said? Why should we assume --

WILKOW: But is what he wrote in this particular book factually incorrect?

COLMES: Well, we found out, Bill Sammon, a lot of the things in this book are not factually correct: Dates that had sermons, as Doug suggested, he attended, he wasn't there, saying Obama dedicated the book -- or didn't dedicate it to his family, when he did, other inconsistencies in terms of dates, times, people, and places. Why should we believe anything in this book, given that's the case?

SAMMON: Well, the nature of those inaccuracies, I think, is relatively innocuous. In other words, the first thing the Obama camp --

COLMES: That he's doing drugs?

SAMMON: Well, no, let me finish my sentence, Alan. I only got one sentence. I just got started.

COLMES: Go ahead.

SAMMON: The first thing on that 40-page document that the Obama camp points out is that the author got their wedding date wrong -- the year of their wedding wrong. OK. Well, that's not a good thing, but it doesn't go to the ideology of Obama.

I think -- I agree that Obama -- it's understandable that he would fight back and not make the same mistake as John Kerry did, which was to be slow to respond to the Swift Boat attacks. But there is such a thing as protesting too much. I agree that this perpetuates the story. And I also think that the blowback from the Obama camp is so heavy-handed and so brutal, calling him a liar, and so on and so forth, that I think that raises some eyebrows that perhaps they're protesting too much.

—L.K.A.