This afternoon on The Situation Room, the flap over the Barrack Obama Muslim school flap was examined, first in a package piece from Howard Kurt (recycling his Post column this morning) and then followed by a report by John Vause. Vause’s report also became an entry in CNN’s political ticker. CNN wouldn’t be trying to take advantage of FNC’s Fox and Friends incident Friday would it? Read the transcript and judge for yourself…

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: As he gets closer to an all-out White House bid, Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy has already come under an all-out attack, an allegation that as a young boy in Indonesia he was educated in a madrassa, a Muslim religious school, that often educates extremists.

Howard Kurtz of CNN’s “RELIABLE SOURCES” took a closer look at the rumor and the uproar, and our John Vause is actually on the scene in Indonesia with a firsthand investigation of the facts.

Let’s begin our coverage with Howard — Howard.

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST, “RELIABLE SOURCES”: Wolf, the first media controversy of the 2008 presidential campaign has erupted and is raising questions about journalistic behavior.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: As many of you know…

KURTZ (voice over): From the moment Barack Obama began talking about running for president, he’s drawn an increasingly loud drumbeat of positive coverage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Barack Obama, the rising rock star.

BILL PRESS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: It’s about Barack Obama, the rock star.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: His rock star popularity…

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: Barack Obama treated like a rock star.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huge crowds, literally. They would make a rock star envious.

KURTZ: But in recent days the Illinois senator has had to cope with a rumor pushed by a little-known conservative magazine and amplified by an echo chamber on the right. And the unsubstantiated article tries to blame the whole thing on Hillary Clinton.

“Insight” magazine, which is owned by the conservative “Washington Times,” says Obama went to a madrassa, the type of Muslim religious school often associated with teaching the most fundamentalist form of Islam. The article also accused him of supposedly hiding that he was raised as Muslim.

An Obama spokesman calls the story, based entirely on unnamed sources, trash and completely false.

Obama has already revealed in his two autobiographies that he spent two years at a predominantly Muslim school. This, by the way, when he was just 6 years old. The senator today is a Christian who belongs to a Chicago church.

“Insight” also claims the madrassa allegation has been spread by researchers “connected to Senator Clinton.” Again, without a single named source or document. A Clinton spokesman calls the piece an obvious right-wing hit job.

The allegations got a big boost from Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, with “The New York Post” running this headline: “‘Osama’ Mud Flies at Obama.” And Murdoch’s FOX News Channel touted the claims on two programs.

JOHN GIBSON, FOX NEWS: The gloves are off. Hillary Clinton reported to be already digging up the dirt on Barack Obama. The New York senator has reportedly outed Obama’s madrassa past.

KURTZ: But as we now know, there is no madrassa past. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs (ph), who called FOX’s broadcasting of the madrassa tale “appallingly irresponsible,” says she didn’t think much of a clarification carried this morning on the program “FOX and Friends.”

FOX News executive Bill Shine says some of the network’s hosts were simply expressing their opinions and repeatedly cited “Insight” as the source of the allegations. Some conservatives say Obama should expect his personal life to come under journalistic scrutiny.

JONAH GOLDBERG, EDITOR, “NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE”: I think the background on Obama, when all he’s running on is his background, is fair game. If this thing is a lie or a smear, then it needs to be denounced and pelted from the public sphere for being an unfair and untrue allegation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KURTZ: This, unfortunately, is how the media food chain works. A bogus charge appears in some magazine or on some Web site and works its way up to bigger news outlets, all based on little or no evidence.

What makes the madrassa story unusual is that the false allegations are about a candidate’s elementary school nearly 40 years ago, and the attempt to blame this rumor mongering on the rival campaign of Hillary Clinton — Wolf.

BLITZER: Howard Kurtz reporting for us.

Howie, thanks.
…..

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I came here to Barack Obama’s elementary school in Jakarta looking for what some have been calling an Islamic madrassa like those that teach violence and hate in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Well, Wolf, I’ve been to madrassas in Pakistan, and this school is nothing like that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE (voice over): In the quadrangle of this elementary school, boys and girls age from 6 to 12 neatly dressed in uniform, playing together, just as a young Barack Obama would have done almost 40 years ago. Here they’re taught science and math and practice traditional Indonesian dance.

Besuki elementary follows a national curricula, just like it did in the ’60s and ’70s. Take a close look at Obama’s teachers, women and men all in Western-style dress.

There are religion classes once a week. Most of the 450 students are Muslim and are taught about Islam. The handful of Christians learn that Jesus is the son of God.

The deputy headmaster tells me he’s unaware that his school has been labeled an Islamic madrassa by some in the United States and bristles at the thought. “This is a public school. We don’t focus on religion,” he told me. “In our daily lives we try to respect religion, but we don’t give preference to one or the other.”

Bandung Winadijanto attended Besuki with Obama. Back then was known as Barry. They were in Boy Scouts together. And he says in all these years, not a lot has changed at his old elementary.

BANDUNG WINADIJANTO, BESUKI ALUMNI: No, it’s not an Islamic school. It is common — I mean, it’s general, because there’s also a lot of Christian students, Buddhism students, also (INAUDIBLE) students.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: And Wolf, in almost every way this school is typical of all state-run schools in Indonesia, except this is probably one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Jakarta. The U.S. ambassador lives just up the road, and this school is probably better off than most — Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. John Vause in Jakarta for us. An excellent, excellent report. Glad we could bring that to our viewers.