Where The Latest Birther Lie Came From
STELTER: Now to the roots of the newest birther lie. Honestly, I hate to even start a segment that way because the selection of Kamala Harris is a big deal and the smear is about her shameful. But the smears do show the crazed 2020 media ecosystem works or doesn't work. So, let's do it. Let me show you how this works, OK. The initial claim came from a Newsweek column written by a law professor John Eastman, who it is worth noting ran for California Attorney General the same year that Harris won that race. The Daily Beast says it took Newsweek three days and a staff revolt to finally come around and apologize for publishing that op-ed. Now, Newsweek initially defended it and said it wasn't about birtherism. But come on, it started this domino effect which caused President Trump to be asked about it at a press briefing. He kind of kept it going by not rejecting it, you know, by kind of saying he would look into it at first. Now, this weekend, the Trump officials have rejected it and admitted that Harris is of course eligible to run. But this is how it started. It started with a column on the Newsweek Web site, and it's been going ever since. What a racist way to waste four days of our time. Now, Harris is calling it out in new interview this Morning with the Grio. Here's what she said about this.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're going to engaged in lies, they're going to deception, they're going to engage in an attempt to distract from the real issues that are impacting the American people. And I expect that they will engage in dirty tactics, and this is going to be a knockdown drag out. And we're ready.</s>STELTER: Let's talk more about it with Senior Media Reporter Oliver Darcy, my CNN Newsletter companion. Oliver, we've been covering this in our nightly newsletter. First of all, what the heck happened to Newsweek Magazine?</s>OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: Yes, well, Newsweek Magazine initially came out, Brian, you know this, and they defended running this op-ed from this conservative law professor. But you know, a couple of days ago, they backtracked. They said they apologize, that they didn't really see how it was going to be used to perpetuate this racist birtherism lie. And so now they're backtracking. But you mentioned too that the campaign is apologizing for -- not apologizing, but saying that she is eligible to be vice president. We haven't heard the President say that though. You know, the president came out and he praised this law professors and said he was a very talented law professor and kind of floated this birtherism lie. And he hasn't apologized, or at least to my knowledge, backtracked on that and said, you know, Kamala Harris, I disagree with her policies, but she is eligible to be vice president.</s>STELTER: Speaking of these briefings here, here's one of these briefings where this question was asked. We've noticed something lately where representatives of President Trump's fan Web sites, like super-duper pro-Trump sites are being invited to these briefings as guests of the White House. Tell us why this is such a problem.</s>DARCY: Well, Brian, President Trump is really the conspiracy theorist, Commander in Chief, right. And Mike Pence says that he's a Christian first, a conservative second, a Republican third. I think for President Trump, he's really a conspiracy theorist first. And so, he wants his conspiratorial outlets in this briefing room. And he likes following on OAN which is a conspiratorial outlet. He likes falling on the Gateway Pundit, a conspiratorial outlet, and we're seeing this in the briefing room. It matters because --</s>STELTER: It help him out, right? It helps them out. They can throw softballs --</s>DARCY: Right, it helps him out.</s>STELTER: Yes.</s>DARCY: And these outlets are giving special treatment in the briefing room. They -- there are restrictions, social distancing restrictions right now implemented by the White House Correspondents Association. The White House is inviting these outlets in, you know, in contradiction to these guidelines, and allowing them into the briefing room because the president likes the kind of coverage they offer.</s>STELTER: And here's what the head of the White House Correspondents Association, Zeke Miller told me about this. He said it is outrageous the White House continues to invite guests to press briefings, putting the health and safety of everyone in that workspace at greater risk. He went on to say the social distancing guidelines were crafted in consultation with the White House based on the recommendations of the CDC and other public health professionals. Trampling on these guidelines endangers the critical work of journalists, of reporters who have maintained independent press coverage of the presidency throughout the pandemic. It's a perfect way to sum it up there from Zeke Miller. Let's talk about the COVID-19 crisis in the coverage, Oliver. Looking at today's front pages from Idaho to Michigan, COVID-19 remains front- page news. The Idaho Statesman, for example, pointed out there are still delays and shortages in getting test results. We are likely to see the 170,000-mark cross today confirmed deaths from COVID-19. But you know, the researchers have looked at the actual number of excess deaths in this country. The estimated death is above the norm. And they say it's closer to 200,000 so far this year. So the real actual death toll from COVID-19, around 200,000. For example, in Houston and in Texas has been noticed. Today's Houston Chronicle front page calls these deaths unaccounted. I guess the point, Oliver, is as we cover COVID-19 to make sure we don't get numb to this reality and we have to constantly remind viewers that It's even worse than we know, it's even worse than the data indicates.</s>DARCY: And, Brian, if you pay attention to conservative media, you know that the opposite is being told to them. You know, on talk radio and some of these right-wing sites, there's this conspiracy theory that the deaths are being over-counted. So, it's even more important for news outlets to stress these are -- you know, these are very likely undercounted numbers. We don't really know the toll of this virus has had on the country. We know that there are, you know, 160,000 plus directly linked cases of coronavirus deaths, but it's like you said, probably much higher. And one other point to make is we talked about a lot of positive tests and how the cases are going up. I think the death toll is probably a thing that the media should be emphasizing more as well as the hospitalization rates because the president keeps going on with this lie that the cases are only because we're doing more testing. Well, that doesn't account for the increase in deaths or the increase in hospitalization rates.</s>STELTER: Yes. And not just in the U.S., but around the world. There was a shocking study earlier in the week that found that about 800 people have died based on drinking a form of alcohol hoping it would cure them. And then that was the result of disinformation that was being spread on the internet. This was in other countries where you've got, of course, this information about COVID spreading around the world in 25 different languages and their deaths attributable to that disinformation. Oliver, thank you for being here. I mentioned the Newsletter. Folks can sign up for free right now@cnn.it/reliable. That's to get on the list for our nightly RELIABLE SOURCES Newsletter. After the break here, why this republican congressman is speaking out against QAnon.