Robert Gibbs questions accuracy of Forbes’ Obama piece

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs took to his Twitter account this week to air his exasperation over Forbes magazine's controversial cover story on Barack Obama's political outlook. Gibbs asked why the magazine didn't hire a fact-checker for Dinesh D'Souza's caustic book excerpt, "How Obama Thinks." The press secretary then linked to a Columbia Journalism Review take-down of what it described as a "shameful" and "disgusting" attack.

But Gibbs didn't stop there. On Thursday, he met with Forbes' Washington bureau chief, Brian Wingfield, to express his concerns about inaccuracies in the piece, as the Washington Post reported yesterday.

Gibbs, after the meeting, told The Upshot that he asked Wingfield to "convey to New York my question of what their plan is to correct the many factual errors that I and others have pointed out about the cover story."

"I think Forbes owes their readers, after folks like the Columbia Journalism Review call your cover story 'error-laden,' an explanation and more importantly the truth," Gibbs said. "We will see if they take facts seriously based on their response."

As of Friday morning, Gibbs hasn't yet heard back from the Forbes powers that be in New York.

So far, Forbes has defended D'Souza's piece, which includes arguments that "Obama is the most antibusiness president in a generation, perhaps in American history" and is actually motivated by "anti-colonialism." (Newt Gingrich cited D'Souza's piece, and the new book from which the piece was drawn, "The Roots of Obama's Rage," when he recently spoke of Obama's "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview).

D'Souza, a conservative writer who once argued that liberals are responsible for 9/11, dubs Obama's actions "bizarre," his behavior "strange," and his foreign policy "no less strange."

"Dinesh D'Souza's cover story was presented as an analysis of how the President thinks," a Forbes spokeswoman said in statement. "No facts are in contention. Forbes stands by the story."

Liberal watchdog Media Matters disagrees: "Memo to Forbes: D'Souza's 'facts' are indeed in contention."

Media Matters questions several of D'Souza's claims, such as how Obama supposedly views the Lockerbie bomber as an "anti-colonial resister" and the idea that the president doesn't support offshore drilling in the United States (when he's actually spoken in favor of expanding offshore drilling). D'Souza also claims that a proposed Islamic center and mosque in Lower Manhattan will be "constructed at Ground Zero." In fact, the site is two blocks from the World Trade Center site.

The Washington Post notes that D'Souza has acknowledged one mistake — the claim that Obama spent his first 17 years "off the American mainland," including time in Pakistan. Obama actually visited Pakistan after age 17. D'Souza's statement about Obama's years living "off the American mainland" is otherwise correct; of course, the majority of those years were spent living in an American state, Hawaii.

A spokeswoman said that Steve Forbes, a former Republican presidential candidate and the magazine's editor-in-chief, was not available to discuss the controversial article. (Forbes, in his editor's letter noting D'Souza's piece, included an altered image of Obama sitting next to Vladimir Lenin, smiling broadly.)

D'Souza, in a statement provided to The Upshot, defended the piece.

"Currently, there is not an accepted framework to provide an understanding of his actions, which is why so many people are grappling to figure out the President — and why there are so many extreme and erroneous accusations flying around," D'Souza said.

"I am not a 'birther': In the book, I explicitly disavow any suggestion that Obama was not born in America," he continued. "I also reject any race-based interpretations; my view is that Obama is not motivated by race. I believe the article has touched a nerve because it expresses a truth that has not been articulated before."

(Photo: AP /J. Scott Applewhite)