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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Birthers Claim Esquire Defamed Them

WASHINGTON (CN) - A conspiracy theorist claims Esquire Magazine sabotaged his book, "Where's the Birth Certificate? The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President" in an article that claimed, falsely, that he and his publisher admitted the book was inaccurate and planned to recall and pulp the first run of 200,000 copies.

Jerome Corsi, his publisher WorldNetDaily.com and its CEO Joseph Farah sued Esquire, Mark Warren and Esquire publisher Hearst Communications, alleging defamation.

Corsi also wrote, and Farah published, "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak out Against John Kerry," and "Capricorn One: NASA, JFK, and the Great 'Moon Landing' Cover-Up," according to the federal complaint.

"About 25 percent of the American people believe that because President Barack Obama waited many years to release what he now claims is his birth certificate, as well as other factors, that the newly released birth certificate is fraudulent and that he is not eligible to be President of the United States," Corsi and Farah say in their complaint.

They claim that just as Corsi's book was being released, Esquire published an article on the Internet titled "Breaking: Jerome Corsi's Birther Book Pulled from Shelves?" The article claims that Farah said in an interview: "I believe with all my heart that Barack Obama is destroying this country, and I will continue to stand against his administration at every turn, but in light of recent events, this book has become problematic, and contains what I now believe to be factual inaccuracies."

They claim the article falsely reported that Farah planned to recall and pulp the entire 200,000 first printing of the book.

"Immediately following the Esquire and Warren publication, news organizations, readers of WorldNetDaily, purchasers and distributors of WND Books and others began contacting plaintiff Farah for confirmation of the story and comment," the complaint states. "In addition, consumers began requesting refunds and book supporters began attacking Farah and Corsi. Book stores also began pulling the book from their shelves, or not offering it for sale at all."

Corsi and Farah claim Esquire later published a disclaimer, stating that the article was satire, and that Esquire editor Mark Warren told The Daily Caller website that "they had 'no regrets' in posting the subject stories and that plaintiff Corsi, and by extension the other plaintiffs, are an 'execrable piece of shit.'"

The plaintiffs seek $195 million.

They are represented by Larry Klayman.

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