Media Repetition and the Big Lie Effect likely made the birth certificate release a necessary evil.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

I'm not crazy about the fact that Obama and his team knuckled under to this ridiculous bullshit but I can see where they might have felt it was the lesser evil.

Due to the unusual circumstance of a famous asshole like The Donald being willing to insistently and loudly beat the Birther drum (I'm sure for entirely cynical self promotion reasons and the fact that it scored him easy points with the idiot crowd), and the media amplifying this without correspondingly knocking down Birtherism each time, I could see where the issue might start to gain traction with a lot of non-Obama haters, low information independent types, just through constant repetition.

Perhaps President Obama and his people had polling numbers showing this effect beginning to happen, perhaps they did not. But this was something I was beginning to worry about myself.

[Taverner]

1. Thing is, even this won't convince the racist birthers

They'll say "we had this taken to an EXPERT! AN EXPERT!" (this expert is the man's barber, who also sings in a barbershop quartet) "AND HE SAID IT HAS TO BE A FAKE!"

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. I agree, but anyone still clinging to "birthcertificate-ism" after this has no leg to stand on.

"Where's the birth certificate"

"Here it is"

...

It becomes even more clear to any semi-reasonable person who might have started to wonder "why do I keep hearing about this, is there something to it maybe" that anyone still clinging to this is a loon who is determined to hate on President Obama no matter what.

[EC]

3. It does show very clearly how a lie can be broadcast

over and over again - giving the lie credence. That's how the Palin's of the world get notoriety. The MSM has to get better at calling out the lies and being responsible.

[emulatorloo]

4. Media is so scared of being called "liberal biased" that they gave up on fact checking