Carson isn’t being treated unfairly, he’s being treated like a frontrunner
After a week in which questions were raised regarding multiple parts of Ben Carson’s past, the Republican presidential frontrunner has settled on a time-worn response: The media is unfairly targeting me.
“It’s almost an us versus them thing,” Carson told NBC’s Chris Jansing on Saturday night. “And every place I go, you know, I go to a book signing, there’s a thousand people in line – please don’t let them get to you. Don’t give up. We got your back. We know what’s going on. We believe you.”
Every single day, every other day or every week, you know, they’re going to come out with, ‘Well, you said this when you were 13. The whole point is to distract the populace, to distract me. If you’ve got a real scandal, if you’ve got something that’s really important, let’s talk about that.”
Ben Carson
retired neurosurgeon, Republican presidential frontrunnerOn Friday, in a press conference in Florida following hard on a Politico story that made clear he had never been offered a full scholarship to West Point, Carson insisted that his supporters “understand that this is a witch hunt.”
Carson’s message, boiled down to its simplest terms, is this: I am being unfairly targeted by a liberal media uncomfortable with the idea of a non-politician with deep religious conviction as the frontrunner for a major party’s presidential nomination.
To which I would say: He’s got it half right. Carson is being scrutinized because he is the frontrunner for a major party’s presidential nomination. The same way Donald Trump – and his finances – are. The same way Marco Rubio – and his finances – are. The same way Hillary Clinton – and her e-mails – are. The same way frontrunners for nomination – Democratic and Republican – are.
When you are in the handful of people running for the most powerful job in the country, the job of the press is to educate the public about who you are – based on the things you have done in your life. Carson, unlike Rubio or Clinton or Jeb Bush, doesn’t have a record of votes or positions taken in elected office that help paint a picture of what sort of president he might be.
So, how then can reporters try to understand and explain Carson to the public? By telling - and examining – his remarkable personal story, which sits at the center of his I-am-not-a-politician appeal. And, even if you l-o-v-e Carson, you have to admit that not everything exactly checks out about that background at the moment.
Politico may have gone too far in insisting Carson “fabricated” his memory that he had been admitted with a full scholarship to West Point. He says that in a meeting with General William Westmoreland, it was intimated to him that he could have a scholarship if he wanted one. But, Westmoreland’s records suggest he wasn’t in Detroit when Carson said they met. And, even if the two met, saying “Hey you are a smart dude and would be a great candidate for admission at West Point” isn’t the same thing as being formally offered admittance. It’s just not.
And, even if you support Carson, you should find it slightly strange that nine people who grew up with him in Detroit told CNN said that his recounting of his troubled youth and angry temperament don’t jibe with their remembrances. Or that, when pressed, Carson has refused to name even a single person involved in several of the incidents of violence he wrote about in “Gifted Hands,” his memoir. “I’m not giving any information about who the person was that I tried to knife,” Carson told Jansing Saturday in one of the most amazing quotes ever from a presidential candidate.
None of the above means that Carson is a fabulist or that he shouldn’t be president. But, the idea that the questions raised about inconsistencies in his personal story are somehow out of bounds or the result of some sort of “witch hunt” is equally ridiculous. And, simply because Carson says it doesn’t make it any more true.
It’s called vetting. It’s how the press helps the public learn everything they can about the people running for the presidency. If you want to run for the big job, you have to be ready for all that comes with it. This ain’t bean bag, after all.
TRUMP QUESTIONS TRUTH OF CARSON'S STORIES
Donald Trump, who has taken well-documented liberties with facts from his own life story and from his campaign for president, sought repeatedly Sunday to cast doubt on the honesty of Ben Carson, his surging Republican rival.
Trump directly challenged the veracity of important stories from Carson’s autobiography, like his recollection of trying to stab a childhood friend.
On Sunday, Trump seemed incredulous about Carson’s claim that his friend’s belt buckle had blocked the stabbing.
“That’s pretty unlikely, ‘cause a belt buckle will turn,” Trump said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “You know, a belt buckle is not going to stop a knife.”
So far, nobody else has verified that account, which appeared in Carson’s 1991 autobiography, “Gifted Hands.”
Trump wondered about Carson’s memory of meeting with Gen. William C. Westmoreland at a military dinner in Detroit, around the time Carson says he was offered a full scholarship to the U.S. Military Academy.
Trump said he had read that Westmoreland was not in Detroit at the time. “Maybe it’s right and maybe it’s wrong,” he said of Carson’s account.
New York Times
CARSON QUESTIONS
▪ “Gifted Hands” is central to much of the scrutiny. It tells the story of Carson’s rise from a childhood in inner city Detroit to the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
In it, he tells of trying to stab a close friend when he was a teenager. CNN reported it could not find friends or confidants to corroborate that story.
▪ Politico published a piece examining Carson’s claim of receiving a scholarship offer to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The Wall Street Journal said it could not confirm Carson anecdotes from his high school and college years. The academy does not offer scholarships, instead extending all expenses paid to students it admits. Carson never applied for admission.
▪ Last month, police in Baltimore said they didn’t have enough information to verify Carson’s account of being held at gunpoint more than 30 years ago at a fast-food restaurant in the city.
▪ In the third GOP debate, Carson said it was “absolutely absurd” to say he had a formal relationship with the company Mannatech. He is featured in the company’s videos, including one from last year in which he credits the firm’s supplements with helping people restore a healthy diet.
Carson and his campaign forcefully reject any suggestion he has been less than completely truthful.
Associated Press
A STORY AS OLD AS THE PYRAMIDS
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is standing by a speech he’d made years before that the pyramids of ancient Egypt, known as elaborate tombs for the pharaohs, were built to store grain. “It’s still my belief, yes,” he told CBS last week.
It’s not true, experts say. But it’s also not something Carson made up. The story of the pyramids as the storage place for that grain gained some popularity in the account of a monk, Bernard the Wise, a pilgrim to Egypt in A.D. 870. The monk, seeing the pyramids, wrote that they were “the remains of seven granaries,” according to Robert Ritner, a professor of Egyptology at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
“Mr. Carson’s education comes from ideas that were circulating before the Renaissance,” Ritner said, while Egyptologists scoff at Carson’s interpretation of the pyramids as anything but tombs. “The suggestion by Mr. Carson is not a new suggestion about the pyramids but it simply represents a remarkable lapse of education.”
Harvard University scholar Peter Der Manuelian agreed: “The Egyptians tell us in their Pyramid Texts what the pyramids are for: They are parts of royal tomb complexes.”
Washington Post
This story was originally published November 8, 2015 at 11:57 PM with the headline "Carson isn’t being treated unfairly, he’s being treated like a frontrunner."