The Madrassa Rumor Returns

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: CBS News Issues

Liberal media watchdog group Media Matters has posted a complaint about Wednesday's installment of "Katie Couric's Notebook," which centers on Barack Obama's background. You can watch the Notebook by clicking on the video box.

"Is America ready to elect a president who grew up praying in a mosque?," Couric asks at the outset of the Notebook. She goes on to say this:

Barack Obama has arguably the most diverse religious background of any candidate ever. He was raised in Indonesia by a Christian mother and Muslim stepfather and attended a Catholic school -- but while growing up, also studied Islam. That background sparked rumors that he had studied in a radical madrassa, or Quranic school -- rumors his campaign denied, declaring that Obama is now a practicing Christian.

As Media Matters notes, on Jan. 23 CNN posted a story headlined "CNN debunks false report about Obama," noting "[a]llegations that Sen. Barack Obama was educated in a radical Muslim school known as a 'madrassa' are not accurate, according to CNN reporting." Other media outlets followed.

Media Matters is making a fair point here: To bring up the madrassa rumor and note only that "his campaign denied" it leaves open the possibility that the claim is true. Since we know that it is not, Couric would have been well served to have pointed out as much.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by memekiller April 16, 2007 1:00 PM EDT: Thank you for this. I remember you were one of the few who didn't fall for the Drudge virus about Iran making non-Muslims where armbands (with the exception of CBS radio).; Reply to this comment


by maxfieldd-2009 April 15, 2007 5:18 PM EDT: Okay CBS NEWS, so what are you going to do about this contradiction between fact and faux news? It is only fair to make the correction as public and prominent as the original disinformation. If not, then a pox on your record and veracity.

Ms Couric can be blamed only to the extent that she is a mindless, Stepford-reader of other people's disinformation propaganda. We know (given the plagiarism of one of her writers) that she doesn't produce anything of her own accord. Who is going to take the blame for this shameless smear?; Reply to this comment


by cikaris April 15, 2007 2:51 PM EDT: There is no doubt that Katie Couric's commentary is flawed since it is factually incorrect. It would have been better had she studied the record more carefully. Instead of focussing on rumor and innuendo she should have just stuck to the facts.

For example, contrary to her assertion that Barack Obama%u2019s mother was a %u201CChristian mother,%u201D she was not a %u201CChristian mother%u201D by any reasonable standard. She was an avowed atheist. "She touted herself as an atheist, and it was something she'd read about and could argue," said Maxine Box, who was Dunham's best friend in high school. [Chicago Tribune, 25 March 2007].

In %u201CThe Audacity of Hope,%u201D Obama characterizes her orientation as secular. In his own words, his mother had a %u201Chealthy skepticism of organized religion.%u201D

In %u201CDreams from My Father%u201D Obama describes his mother as "a lonely witness for secular humanism."

The facts clearly show that she was definitely not Christian and by no stretch of the imagination was she a %u201CChristian mother.%u201D

Katie definitely needs to do her homework before commenting on this, or any other, issue.; Reply to this comment


by jimspice-2009 April 15, 2007 6:55 AM EDT: Forget the political bias, the a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/arts/television/12cbs.html?_r=1" NYT /a is reporting blockquote CBS News said yesterday it planned to install a new level of editorial oversight to its Web site since revelations that the CBS anchor Katie Couric read a plagiarized commentary on the site last week. /blockquote; Reply to this comment


by jerjantzen April 15, 2007 3:47 AM EDT: It is not a matter of Katie Couric inseting personal opinion/views into a news story, it is the Rovian style bias that is driving her reporting...'Killroy" is alive and well. Couric is getting paid to carry water for neocon agenda.; Reply to this comment


by tarthur727 April 14, 2007 6:12 PM EDT: Katie Couric demonstrated from week one where her political bias lies. In her first "free speech" segment, she had Rush Limbaugh and rejected Bill Maher as to partisian?! Ms. Couric has made one mis-step after another to zazz up the evening news ( Edwards interview and WSJ plagerism to name a few). Her interviews on the Today Show were more hard hitting and relevent than anything she has done as the ANCHOR for CBS News. The damage that she does for future nightly news broadcasters is for now incalcuable.

Oh, how I wish credibility could be restored...

Step 1 CBS: Hire a REAL journalist as your anchor.; Reply to this comment


by p_lukasiak April 14, 2007 4:57 PM EDT: The whole "Note" was pathetic -- not just Couric's "madrassa" nonsense.

Rather than ask the question, "Is America ready to elect a president who grew up praying in a mosque?," she should be asking "Just how stupid and bigoted are the American people?"

Barack Obama has been a Christian all his adult life. The fact that he studied Islam (as well as Christianity)-- and prayed in a mosque (as well as church) -- as a child, is relevant ONLY insofar as it provides him with unique qualifications at a time when US relations with the Islamic world are at an all-time low.

My guess is that what Couric really wanted to ask was "Is America ready for a black President?" but (like all the major media) has been afraid to touch that subject --- and for good reason. You ask that question, and the answer you get is "probably not; if a black conservative like Harold Ford Jr can't win against a non-incumbent in Tennessee in a year when GOP incumbents were being thrown out of office all over the country, its pretty obvious that the Democrats will have to write off all the Southern AND border states -- and just about sweep what left -- if they run a black progressive."

Katie Couric doesn't want to say out loud what everyone already knows -- there is more than enough racism in this country -- concentrated in the Confederate and border states --- for a Black Democrat to win without a miracle happening.; Reply to this comment


by ramguy06820 April 14, 2007 4:50 PM EDT: Rick Kaplan needs to get a grip on this show's reporting, or he'll have another "Rather-gate" on his hands. It seems like Katie is straining very hard to juice her ratings but a few more gaffes like this and hse'll have Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson on her case.; Reply to this comment


by pbg3445 April 14, 2007 4:23 AM EDT: Neo-McCarthyite?
But didn't Ann Coulter prove (with a book with lots of footnotes!) that McCarthy was right?

So if they're Neo-McCarthyite they must be steadfast warriors for the truth!

Glad we cleared that up.; Reply to this comment


by mudlake54 April 14, 2007 3:38 AM EDT: Agenda? I thought it was healthy to have as many groups of concerned citixens as possible keeping an eye on what is published in our free speech country. If somebody is broadcasting false and harmful information it needs to be pointed out.

Is this the first time Katie has corrected her notebook?; Reply to this comment