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Gerard Henderson goes for sleaze

For reasons best known to itself, the SMH continues to publish a weekly op-ed piece by Gerard Henderson [of the Sydney Institute - whose funding is kept under wraps]. To all intents and purposes Henderson is an apologist for the Howard Government. Bottom line Henderson's pieces lack any real substance or analysis worth more than a passing thought - that is, to dimiss it!

In his latest piece Henderson, dealing with the Howard outburst against US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obana has, like the Murdoch press in Australia reporting on the brou-ha ha, gone for the sleaze-factor by referring to Obama's middle name Hussein.

As the Washington Post editorialised late last month:

It's become a fad among some conservatives to refer to the junior senator from Illinois by his full name: Barack Hussein Obama. This would be merely juvenile if it weren't so contemptible. Republican lobbyist Ed Rogers, on "Hardball," was one of the early adopters of this sleazy tactic. "Count me down as somebody who underestimates Barack Hussein Obama," he said. Radio host Rush Limbaugh, demonstrating his usual maturity, got a chuckle out of the senator's allegedly oversized ears, calling him "Barack Hussein Odumbo." And Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council issued this e-mail alert: "Joining an already glutted field of hopefuls, Sen. Barack Hussein Obama (D-Ill.) announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic nomination yesterday.

Insight magazine managed to further degrade the public discourse with a scurrilous "report" alleging that Mr. Obama, as a child in Indonesia, attended a radical Islamic madrassa. In fact, Mr. Obama attended a public school in Jakarta that was predominantly Muslim -- no surprise given that Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country. Insight, whose piece was eagerly touted by Fox News Network, might have learned this if it had bothered to check its story rather than cravenly attributing the false report to "Hillary Clinton's camp," citing unnamed "sources close to the background check" that the New York senator supposedly conducted into Mr. Obama."

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