After Yahoo! News White House reporter Rachel Rose Hartman “outed” herself earlier this evening as a birther with a piece referring to President Obama’s African country of origin, her Twitter feed has been quiet. She might be away from the computer (it happens), or she might have gone into hiding until Yahoo! finds some way to blame Fox News for the error. Liberal news outlets are used to letting things like this blow over, but Hartman compounded her sin by addressing the cost of the first family’s Africa trip.
Full disclosure: we at Twitchy have no idea what happened at Yahoo! News or who was responsible for the correction. But it takes only a simple Google search to turn up an article by Hartman, published in 2011, in which she takes on birthers head on and notes that Obama “has faced a relentless campaign questioning his U.S. citizenship — and thereby the legitimacy of his presidency — that has disregarded the facts.” [emphasis added]
So what’s fueling the dogged questioning of Obama’s origins? Many critics of the birther movement say its core tenets–and its stubborn resistance to evidence disproving those beliefs–can be traced to racial hostilities. The fundamental birtherist conviction, these critics say, is that an African-American can’t have legitimately won the presidency–and that his elevation to power therefore has to be the result of an elaborate subterfuge.
“There is a real deep-seated and vicious racism at work here in terms of trying to de-legitimate the president,” Peniel Joseph, a professor of history at Tufts University, told The Ticket.
“This is more than just a conspiracy,” Joseph added. “I think this is fundamentally connected to a conception of white supremacist democracy in this country.”
The same writer who defended Obama against birthers in 2011 could use some backup herself.
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@rachelrhartman You just lost your job. You are not a journalist, you are a birtherist. #POTUS
— #Trump-StochasticTerrorist (@damkina) June 22, 2013
https://twitter.com/goldietaylor/status/348212712909729792
that is horseshit. RT @BuzzFeedAndrew: @rachelrhartman @sparksjls I think she made an honest copy error. I would cut her some slack.
— ?Imani Gandied Yams? (@AngryBlackLady) June 22, 2013
.@BuzzFeedAndrew That wasn’t a mistake. you don’t mistakenly write that Obama isn’t visiting the country of his birth when he visits Africa.
— Imani Gandy ☄️?? (@AngryBlackLady) June 22, 2013
https://twitter.com/sherifffruitfly/status/348235272770695168
.@sherifffruitfly @BuzzFeedAndrew @rachelrhartman it's amazing how quickly the wagons are circled. & by amazing, i mean irritating as shit.
— Imani Gandy ☄️?? (@AngryBlackLady) June 22, 2013
https://twitter.com/allanbrauer/status/348257811194597376
@AngryBlackLady @BlackCanseco @allanbrauer @rachelrhartman what country was rachel hartman born in and can she prove it?
— pappy (@JSoltis) June 21, 2013
@rachelrhartman So you're now a full blown Birther. That means everything you have ever written or ever will write is BS.
— It is pronounced "Zi-Zox" (@Xyxox) June 22, 2013
@Doranimated @daveweigel how is Rachel Hartman not fire from @YahooNews for writing this Birther nonsense
— Maxine Baptiste (@brownsugar7878) June 21, 2013
@steveweinstein @marissamayer @YahooNews u should be a shame of yourself about the birtherism from your reporter Rachel Hartman
— Maxine Baptiste (@brownsugar7878) June 21, 2013
Hey @YahooNews, your reporter Rachel Hartman has gone full #birther. What are you doing about it? cc @TheObamaDiary pic.twitter.com/eLzGj5xBYj
— Rita #VoteBlue #MomsDemandAction (@rchakras) June 21, 2013
@rachelrhartman So you're a birther? Disgusting.
— Jasmine (@jasminemoy) June 21, 2013
https://twitter.com/BlackCanseco/status/348215990934441985
https://twitter.com/theonlyadult/status/348215493896830976
https://twitter.com/aczaj/status/348215247846400000
@TallGrrl @allanbrauer @rachelrhartman I also like how Africa is one country, bonus racism
— Kirt Dankmyer (@xiombarg) June 21, 2013
@YahooNews I know you accept disgusting racist comments from your readers, but now readers have to get it from your writers? @rachelrhartman
— lkatrell (@lkatrell) June 21, 2013
Shorter @rachelrhartman Obama spending your god-given tax dollars in the jungles of
A F R I C A @YahooNews says he was born there!— AAmom? (@AVD911) June 21, 2013
@rachelrhartman RETRACT your story! You & all the editors should be FIRED IMMEDIATELY!
— Move Forward (@ThinkDoProgress) June 21, 2013
https://twitter.com/allanbrauer/status/348218479213682688
@rachelrhartman Hope by tomorrow you will be jobless with your birther crap.
— NoChillMood (@ritaag) June 21, 2013
@rachelrhartman you really think deleting your birther tweets makes a difference?! We see you, and are disgusted. Racism makes you gross.
— ᶜᴿᵞˢᵀᴬᴸ ᴾᴱᴳᴬˢᵁˢ ? (@TwinnerCat) June 22, 2013
@rachelrhartman your kind of yellow"journalism" doesn't even belong in scandal mags. Hatred, bigotry and lies are not journalism.
— ᶜᴿᵞˢᵀᴬᴸ ᴾᴱᴳᴬˢᵁˢ ? (@TwinnerCat) June 22, 2013
There is absolutely no effing way this was a 'copy error'. This was pure, uncut birther BS. @BuzzFeedAndrew @rachelrhartman @sparksjls
— Eric The Fred (@ericthefredd) June 22, 2013
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