Rachel Rose Hartman of Yahoo! has recently made an amazing claim regarding the U.S. President Obama in an article published over the Internet on Friday. It seems that his upcoming visit to Africa will not even include a stop in his so called birth country – Kenya. It is not like Obama visits Africa every week in order to afford wasting the opportunity to visit his own country, hence the numerous question marks around his trip.
The president’s trip is supposed to last between June 26 and July 3. It does not have any political connotations, although the president is expected to meet a few representatives in the area as well. Moreover, the president has included Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania on his tripping map. Surprisingly enough, the president’s birthplace is not included on the route, hence the suspicions around his ancestral homeland.
With all these, there is a huge controversy around Obama’s birthplace. Practically, the president has claimed on his birthplace to be Hawaii. He has mentioned it for a few times during some past interviews, yet no one could confirm it yet. However, the press has released a series of stories regarding his origins. For instance, most of his relatives or ancestors live in Kenya. In fact, a story regarding Obama’s grandmother has circulated in the press a couple of years ago too. Back then, the president’s grandmother was said to be threatened by various terrorist groups, yet no one could confirm it.
According to Talking Points Memo, Yahoo! Has quickly changed the original news on the official website. It took the company representatives less than 90 minutes to change the statement. The Internet giant has come up with a new top paragraph, which reads:
“Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the president’s birthplace.”
But then, the press had plenty of time to get the news and start commenting about it. Whether it was a mistake or a new rumor, only author Rachel Rose Hartman can tell the truth. Other than that, the article has also been slightly changed, so Kenya was no longer referred as the country of his birth. Instead, the new version of the story claims that Kenya is his ancestral homeland.
Those who missed the original article can still see it over the Internet. There are a lot of screenshots circulating with both versions, as well as the underlined corrections. Although Yahoo! has moved pretty fast, people could still read the original version. Some of them did not even notice the change, while others ended up asking themselves what the truth is.
However, since the president’s visit is official and not secret, the stops are well known by the media. Plus, even Ben Rhodes – an adviser for strategic communications – has told the press that Kenya was not even supposed to represent one of the stops. It is hard to tell whether or not it actually represents Obama’s birthplace, but one thing is for sure – his ancestors do come from the respective African country.