![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/legacy\/u29\/muslim_rumor.png\")
<\/figure>\n\nThese rumors then found their way into the mainstream media and never fully disappeared. During the general election, nearly a third (30%) of religion-related campaign coverage addressed this topic.<\/p>\n\n
A good deal of the continued attention rested on the Obama campaign\u2019s efforts to set the record straight. One such incident occurred in June when Obama staffers removed two women wearing head scarves from the camera view at a campaign rally. Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said the campaign\u2019s move symbolized Obama\u2019s broken promise to \u201ctranscend identity politics.\u201d On the June 19 episode of Fox News\u2019 Hannity & Colmes, a video clip quoted the brother of one of the women, who speculated that the Obama campaign \u201cwanted to make sure, in my opinion, that no one will correlate a Muslim girl in the back with him being Muslim.\u201d MSNBC\u2019s Dan Abrams summarized on June 18 that the consensus among pundits was that the incident hurt the candidate.<\/p>\n\n
The Obama team set up a website, www.fightthesmears.com, as a tool to identify and root out inaccuracies about the candidate\u2019s religious background, among other rumors. The June 13 broadcast of ABC\u2019s Good Morning America aired an entire segment on the site and many other outlets also covered the new site. <\/p>\n\n
A controversy over the July 21 edition of The New Yorker magazine is a case in point. The magazine\u2019s cover featured a satirical rendering of Obama in traditional Muslim attire, including sandals, robe and turban. Though the magazine\u2019s editor said the intent of the cartoon was to combat those spreading the rumors \u2013 the title was \u201cThe Politics of Fear\u201d \u2013 its provocative nature drew a good deal of media attention, fueled by the fact that the Obama campaign publicly rebuked the magazine. The week The New Yorker hit newsstands, July 14-20, stories about the cover occupied 10% of the campaign newshole. <\/p>\n\n In the end, did efforts by the traditional press to set the record straight strengthen or lessen the impact of these rumors? Press coverage of efforts to curtail circulating rumors or to correct inaccuracies may have added to the overall impact of the rumors in the end. By simply reporting on the rumors\u2019 influence on public opinion, the press heightened their presence in the news. <\/p>\n\n It is always difficult to identify cause and effect, but the evidence suggests at minimum that the coverage did little to persuade or disabuse those people inclined to believe Obama is a Muslim. In June, the month before The New Yorker cover appeared, 12% of registered voters believed that Obama is a Muslim, according to a survey<\/a> by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. By October, the media\u2019s attention to the rumors had significantly subsided, but polls indicated that their resonance had not. Only weeks before Election Day, the same number (12%) still thought Obama is a Muslim, according to another Pew Research Center survey<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n By this time, news audiences were being exposed to voter anxiety over Obama\u2019s religious affiliation in ways that extended to questions of ethnicity, nationality and patriotism. One such instance occurred at a McCain town hall-style meeting. A woman in attendance stood up and voiced her concern about Obama, saying, \u201cI have read about him \u2026 he\u2019s an Arab.\u201d McCain removed the microphone from her hand and corrected the woman, saying \u201cNo, ma\u2019am. No, ma\u2019am. He\u2019s not \u2026 He\u2019s a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.\u201d The incident, which was captured on video, was replayed on network and cable newscasts.<\/p>\n\n In a much-discussed appearance on NBC\u2019s Meet the Press in which he endorsed Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, noted the persistent rumors and offered a way to refute them. \u201cWell, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim,\u201d said Powell. \u201cHe\u2019s a Christian. He\u2019s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer\u2019s no. That\u2019s not America. Is something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?\u201d <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rumors that Obama is a Muslim, the top religion storyline of the general election, started as early as 2004 but took hold in June 2008 as the general election phase of the campaign began. The rumors then maintained a stubborn presence, both in the press and in public opinion, throughout the duration of the campaign. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_api_pending":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_hidden":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[340],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-90237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presidents-press","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":90226,"word_count":797,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/false-rumors-that-obama-is-a-muslim\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":90226,"title":"How the News Media Covered Religion in the 2008 General Election","slug":"how-the-news-media-covered-religion-in-the-2008-general-election","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/how-the-news-media-covered-religion-in-the-2008-general-election\/","is_active":false},{"id":90250,"title":"Religion in the General Election","slug":"religion-in-the-general-election","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/religion-in-the-general-election\/","is_active":false},{"id":90237,"title":"False Rumors that Obama is a Muslim","slug":"false-rumors-that-obama-is-a-muslim","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/false-rumors-that-obama-is-a-muslim\/","is_active":true},{"id":90243,"title":"\u201cPastor Problems\u201d","slug":"pastor-problems","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/pastor-problems\/","is_active":false},{"id":90256,"title":"Rick Warren\u2019s Civil Forum","slug":"rick-warrens-civil-forum","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/rick-warrens-civil-forum\/","is_active":false},{"id":90263,"title":"Sarah Palin and the \u201cCulture Wars\u201d","slug":"sarah-palin-and-the-culture-wars","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/sarah-palin-and-the-culture-wars\/","is_active":false},{"id":90270,"title":"Media Coverage of the Religious Vote","slug":"media-coverage-of-the-religious-vote","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/media-coverage-of-the-religious-vote\/","is_active":false},{"id":90275,"title":"Methodology","slug":"methodology-10-6","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/methodology-10-6\/","is_active":false},{"id":90282,"title":"Topline","slug":"topline-28","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/topline-28\/","is_active":false}],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":{"id":90237,"title":"False Rumors that Obama is a Muslim","slug":"false-rumors-that-obama-is-a-muslim","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/false-rumors-that-obama-is-a-muslim\/","is_active":true,"page_num":3},"next_post":{"id":90243,"title":"\u201cPastor Problems\u201d","slug":"pastor-problems","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/pastor-problems\/","is_active":false,"page_num":4},"previous_post":{"id":90250,"title":"Religion in the General Election","slug":"religion-in-the-general-election","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/religion-in-the-general-election\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},"pagination_items":[{"id":90226,"title":"How the News Media Covered Religion in the 2008 General Election","slug":"how-the-news-media-covered-religion-in-the-2008-general-election","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/how-the-news-media-covered-religion-in-the-2008-general-election\/","is_active":false,"page_num":1},{"id":90250,"title":"Religion in the General Election","slug":"religion-in-the-general-election","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/religion-in-the-general-election\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},{"id":90237,"title":"False Rumors that Obama is a Muslim","slug":"false-rumors-that-obama-is-a-muslim","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/false-rumors-that-obama-is-a-muslim\/","is_active":true,"page_num":3},{"id":90243,"title":"\u201cPastor Problems\u201d","slug":"pastor-problems","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/pastor-problems\/","is_active":false,"page_num":4},{"id":90256,"title":"Rick Warren\u2019s Civil Forum","slug":"rick-warrens-civil-forum","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/rick-warrens-civil-forum\/","is_active":false,"page_num":5},{"id":90263,"title":"Sarah Palin and the \u201cCulture Wars\u201d","slug":"sarah-palin-and-the-culture-wars","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/sarah-palin-and-the-culture-wars\/","is_active":false,"page_num":6},{"id":90270,"title":"Media Coverage of the Religious Vote","slug":"media-coverage-of-the-religious-vote","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/media-coverage-of-the-religious-vote\/","is_active":false,"page_num":7},{"id":90275,"title":"Methodology","slug":"methodology-10-6","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/methodology-10-6\/","is_active":false,"page_num":8},{"id":90282,"title":"Topline","slug":"topline-28","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/11\/20\/topline-28\/","is_active":false,"page_num":9}]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"How the News Media Covered Religion in the 2008 General Election","parent_id":90226},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"False Rumors that Obama is a Muslim","description":"Rumors that Obama is a Muslim, the top religion storyline of the general election, started as early as 2004 but took hold in June 2008 as the general election phase…","og_title":"False Rumors that Obama is a Muslim","og_description":"","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"incomplete","message":"2 images are missing alt text.","data":{"count":2}},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 10 paragraphs.","data":{"count":10}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add at least one internal link.","data":{"count":0}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130406,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90237\/revisions\/130406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=90237"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=90237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/legacy\/u29\/obama-newyorker.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n