I saw this report on GMA this morning, and I’m amazed that this story continues to get press (although I probably shouldn’t be in this day and age.) As most people who don’t depend solely on Fox News for their information already know, the Indonesian school Barack Obama attended as a child for a couple of years is in fact a normal public school. It is not a “madrassa“, where fundamentalist/extremist Islamic views are taught to Muslim children. GMA was reporting their story today, CNN had posted a similar story on their website a couple of days ago.

I was surprised (well, not really) to see a clip of a Fox anchor state flat out that this was true, despite evidence to the contrary which was readily available. (Dan Rather and the Killian documents come to mind as a similar attempt to discredit a politician with blatant falsehoods.) This was easily verifiable, and yet it (evidently) wasn’t checked out. It doesn’t even appear that the school is a “Muslim school”, as has been reported. According to the headmaster, “These rumors about our school being an Islamic extremist school are completely incorrect. We are a regular public school.”

The ABC article also says the following:

[The headmaster] confirmed that Obama attended the school as a child, before he transferred to a local Catholic school. The school featured both boy and girl students, basketball, and classes in many subjects. A class in Islam was matched by one in Christianity, complete with teachings from the New Testament, a sign featuring the Lord’s Prayer and a painting of Jesus.

Of course, with the country being overwhelmingly Muslim, there’s probably some influence there (as Christianity has often been in this country.) But it certainly does not appear to be the radical training school that some like Fox and Rush Limbaugh would have us believe. It seems unlikely that a radical Muslim school would be teaching Christianity.

Obama has begun to respond as well, including his statement that “the notion that somehow, at the age of 6 or 7, I was being trained for something other than math, science and reading, is ludicrous.”

I mentioned last week this campaign of sorts to paint Obama as something that he’s not, which is nothing new in politics. However, this packs a bigger punch than most because they’re attempting to paint him as a radical Muslim, which is the current face of evil in this country. You convince people he’s good friends with Osama Bin Laden, and he might as well drop out of the race now.

Obama seems to be a very likable guy. I’ve enjoyed listening to him when I’ve see him interviewed on television. I agree with him on some issues I’ve heard him discuss and I am also enjoying reading his book. Some have questioned whether he’s ready to be president, considering he’s a relative newcomer to national politics, and I’m not certain myself. Then again, I’m inclined to think that could be a good thing, too. (God knows we’ve had enough veteran politicians on both sides screwing things up long enough.)

Regardless, he shouldn’t miss an opportunity because of false information being broadcast by major news outlets. If it was a mistake, then it was just bad reporting, and should be corrected. If it wasn’t, then it was dishonest and malicious, and they should be ashamed. Either way, they know better, and should apologize and make it right.