Pres. Obama Blames Internet for Muslim Rumors

The internet is a powerful thing. So concludes President Barack Obama in an extensive sit-down interview for ABC with Barbara Walters, who ventures to ask the President (and the First Lady) where the rumors the President is Muslim generate their strength. While he declined to lay blame or assign motive, President Obama asserted, once again, that the rumors are untrue and that both he and his family benefit from their lives as Christians.

Opening with a question about the impact of his faith on his life, Walters asked point-blank why President Obama thought the rumor of his religious background had any staying power. Declining to address any specifics about the rumors surrounding his religion– like, for instance, how the Muslim and Jeremiah Wright attacks can somehow coexist– Obama laid blame on one particular subset of the media, the internet. “The internet has a powerful effect these ways,” he told Walters, “so the way rumors can take up a life of their own ends up being very powerful.”