VIDEO: NBC Reporter On Obama’s African Summit: “The Fact That He’s From Kenya” Helps

by Gateway Guest Blogger August 6, 2014

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Guest Post by Mara Zebest

Well, now isn’t this interesting.

Real Clear Politics provides more context as follows:

Commenting on President Obama’s discussion with African leaders at the first U.S.-Africa Business Forum, NBC’s Chris Jansing noted “the fact that he’s from Kenya” will help.

“The fact that he’s from Kenya and the fact that when he was elected there were expectations on the African continent that he would do great things for them, this is a concerted effort by this administration to get American companies to invest,” Jansing said.

Jansing appeared on MSNBC shortly after to issue a correction. Jansing said she meant to say President Obama’s father was from Kenya.

It should be noted that NBC is not the only one to state that Kenya is Obama’s home country. Both Obama has stated the same, and Michelle has made similar statements. And let’s not forget Obama’s own bio:

A reminder that media immediately scrambled to apply damage control for the above bio by issuing a statement that the publisher made a mistake on the bio. A mistake that apparently wasn’t noticed until years later (when the bio was brought to the spotlight). It should be noted that anyone who has published a book can attest to the fact that the AUTHOR writes his own bio (NOT the publisher)—and the publisher typically sends all book material to three different editors:

1. A Copy Editor to check for grammatical errors.
2. A Technical Editor to check technical accuracy of the information.
3. A Developmental Editor to oversee the project and to check for consistency of terms and overall book style.

The material then goes back to the AUTHOR for final approval on any suggested changes—referred to as an AR (which stands for Author Review). Thus, Obama not only wrote his own bio… but approved it before it was published.