Birtherism at Accuracy in Media

The conservative watchdog group Accuracy in Media is holding a 40th anniversary conference at Washington’s Omni Shoreham hotel today, with speakers including Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, and Hans van Spakovsky. A revealing morning panel introduced conservatives to Trevor Loudon, whose New Zeal blog has become a source for stories linking the White House to radicals. In his speech, Loudon connected the dots between George Soros, elements of the Communist Party and the Obama administration.

“The reason the White House is going after Fox News is that they are, or were, on their trail,” said AIM’s Cliff Kincaid, arguing that Fox had been informed by Loudon’s research.

During the Q&A, however, it was clear that AIM members wanted Kincaid and Loudon to go further. One woman informed them that she’d traveled to Kenya last year and that multiple Kenyans offered her a guided tour of “Obama’s birthplace.” Loudon mostly blew the question off.

“The Kenya birth situation is a very controversial one and I can’t say either way,” he said. “I’m sure the tours are a lucrative business for some people.”

Kincaid went a little further. “I don’t know the ultimate truth about where he was born,” he said. “All I have done through Accuracy in Media — I’ve released a copy of my own birth certificate.” He went through all of the information included on there that wasn’t included on Obama’s “certification of birth, or whatever they call it.”

Rather famously, Kincaid caused a little heartburn at CPAC 2009 by telling attendees of the conservative conference that “at least in the 1980s we knew the president was born in the United States.”

“I know it’s a controversial topic,” said Kincaid this morning, “but we at AIM stick to what we can prove.”