Topic: WorldNetDaily
As we've noted, WorldNetDaily's Jack Cashill has been gloating that author Christopher Andersen confirmed his claim that "Bill Ayers played a major role in the writing of Obama's much acclaimed 1995 memoir, 'Dreams From My Father.'"The headline on Cashill's Sept. 23 WND column states, "Bookconfirms: Ayers wrote Obama's book," and Cashill goes on to depict this as a "Obama-as-Milli Vanilli story."
Unfortunately for Cashill, it turns out the truth is not quite as simple -- Andersen is quite adamantly pointing out that Ayers played any major role in the writing of Obama's book and definitely did not ghost-write it. From the Sept. 27 edition of CNN's "Reliable Sources":
HOWARD KURTZ (host): Let's talk about Bill Ayers, the one-time terrorist. You say that when Barack was writing his first memoir that he sought advice from Ayers, who was an acquaintance in Chicago, and he submitted the manuscript thanks to the help from the veteran writer Ayers. How do you know that?
ANDERSEN: There are several people on the record who say that in the book. And I might add CNN, in its own investigative report on the connection between Ayers and Barack Obama that was done for Anderson Cooper's show, said that indeed there was a closer relationship than the campaign said there was at the time.
KURTZ: I'm not asking about how close the relationship was. I'm asking about the notion that Ayers actually helped Obama with his book.
ANDERSEN: Neither one denied it. And in fact, you know, he -- there are definitely named sources in the book that point out the fact that there wes a group of writers in Hyde Park Chicago at the time who had input on each other's writings. I definitely do not say he wrote Barack Obama's book. Again, I'm putting up, you know, the accurate picture, which is that they knew each other, they -- he helped a little bit, gave his opinions. That's all I'm saying. And in fact, he did not write Barack Obama's book. So again, you talk about the spin, and I don't like the fact that --
KURTZ: I didn't say that you said that he wrote it, I quoted from the book. All right, Tony Rezko --
ANDERSEN: I know, but you're hinting.
KURTZ: I'm not hinting, I'm not suggesting, I'm not implying.
WND currently links to a video of the interview, surprisingly even highlighting the statement "I definitely do not say he wrote Barack Obama's book" in the subhed -- though WND baselessly puts "wrote" in scare quotes. But the video is at Breitbart.tv, and it doesn't reside on the WND website. Will Cashill note this crucial distinction? We shall see.
