Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Storm over pictures of man in hat

No, not him. Barack Obama, in a hat. So what? Am I missing something?

Obama in a turban: Barack accuses Hillary of smear campaign after circulating photos of him dressed as 'a Muslim'

Oh. Yes, I see. But you can trust the good ship Dacre to steer us through the story in a calm and objective manner:

Campaign chiefs for the Illinois senator have reacted furiously, claiming the image had been leaked to stoke up fears of terrorism and associate Mr Obama with similar pictures of Osama Bin Laden.

What in the wide world of sports?

Hands up anyone who thinks Prince Charles is associated with the Village People after seeing that picture of him up there. Anybody? No? It's just a man in a hat. In Charles's case, trying in that buttock-clenchingly excruciating way to try and be respectful to other cultures while looking slightly bizarre. In Obama's, an attempt, I'm led to believe, to get in touch with his ancestry - surely a laudable aim for anyone. So why does it matter to anyone except a racist or an idiot? Surely - please, I really want this to be true - surely there aren't that many racists or idiots in America? And if you really, desperately don't want to upset racists and idiots, what does that say about you?

Hang on just a moment, though. You know me. The Mail are linking the photo with the word 'Muslim' and 'Bin Laden'. What do his campaign team say?

Guardian:

Barack Obama's campaign team yesterday accused Hillary Clinton's beleaguered staff of mounting a desperate dirty tricks operation by circulating a picture of him in African dress, feeding into false claims on US websites that he is a Muslim.

False claims. I imagine that's why the Mail put it in the headline then, albeit with the get out of jail free card they call the quote mark. See, didn't mean it really! Fooled ya!

Look closer at what the Mail say. Their articles don't come together by accident; they're not written nor subbed by amateurs. They're checked and double checked thoroughly. They say Obama's team said the picture had been leaked to 'stoke up fears of terrorism' and 'link Mr Obama with Osama bin Laden'. Did they? There isn't a quote in the Mail's story to back that up, nor anywhere else that I can find - there could be one, but I can't find it.

So who, exactly, is linking traditional dress with Muslims with terrorism with Osama Bin Laden?

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