Scattered Showers of Journalism: Reporters Band Together to Get Straight Answer on 'Cherokee' Question from Flustered Warren

If you're a regular listen of the Glenn Beck radio program, you're familiar with the soundbite that plays every so often featuring a booming voice and the sound of thunderstorms in the background: "Scattered showers of journalism." It's meant to point out the rare instances when the media fulfills its journalistic duty. Well, you're about to get rained on.

During a session with reporters on Thursday, a local Boston reporter tried to get a straight answer from Elizabeth Warren on the question of her alleged "Cherokee" heritage. Warren went into politician mode: she refused to answer while launching into a bloviation on "middle class families." She then turned away from the reporter and tried to take another question. That's when the second reporter piped up:

"I can't stop her [my fellow reporter] when she's in the sequence [of questions]."

Did that really just happen?

Watch it below:

But here's the kicker: according to a separate report regarding the exchange, Warren is still sticking to claims of American Indian heritage because -- her mother told her so:

Warren’s comments came after nearly four minutes of tense back and forth between Warren and Fox 25 reporter Sharman Sacchetti and 7News reporter Andy Hiller. As both reporters questioned Warren about why she listed herself as a minority in law directories, Warren refused to answer, saying she had already answered questions about her background.

Finally, Warren said, “I am proud of my family and I am proud of my heritage.”

Hiller followed up: “Does it include an Indian background?”

Warren replied, “Yes.”

“How do you know that?” Hiller asked.

Warren responded, “Because my mother told me so. This is how I live. My mother, my grandmother, my family. This is my family. Scott Brown has launched attacks on my family. I am not backing off from my family.”

Based on that report, the journalist who refused to give Warren an out and forced her back into answering questions seems to be Andy Hiller.

Kudos, Andy.

This comes as the Boston Globe released another curious report on Warren being promoted by Harvard, saying that Harvard used her Cherokee heritage claim in federally mandated diversity statistics:

US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard Law School had been promoting her purported Native American heritage until she read about it in a newspaper several weeks ago.

But for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school. According to both Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves.

In addition, both Harvard’s guidelines and federal regulations for the statistics lay out a specific definition of Native American that Warren does not meet.

The documents suggest for the first time that either Warren or a Harvard administrator classified her repeatedly as Native American in papers prepared for the government in a way that apparently did not adhere to federal diversity guidelines. They raise further questions about Warren’s statements that she was unaware Harvard was promoting her as Native American.

By the way, Warren's opponent --Scott Brown -- released a statement in the wake of the exchange:

"In the absence of any facts, Elizabeth Warren continues to claim she is a Native American minority. She needs to stop stonewalling and finally produce the records from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard that will show whether or not she or these schools benefited in any way from this false information about her ancestry."

"Better than a document, better even than DNA: Family lore. Give her credit for staying on message here, though," Hot Air's Allahpundit writes. But he notes that the Cherokee questions could end up swinging in her favor as she starts to play the victim ("note the emphasis on Scott Brown “attacking her family'").

"Don’t you feel ashamed for doubting her and her grandma?" He concludes. "You brutes, you."

UPDATE:

There's also a new report that says Harvard may have been referencing Warren as a person of color as far back as 1993. See that story here.

This story has been updated.