Paper: Drudge is falsely portraying our Obama story

The public editor of a newspaper in Michigan called out online news portal Drudge Report today, accusing the site of being "constantly on the lookout for making mountains out of molehills."

Wednesday afternoon the huge top headline on the news site read: "Students asked for 'citizen status' prior to Obama commencement."

Drudge linked to an article published by the Kalamazoo Gazette two days earlier, Monday morning, about routine background checks performed ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama to Kalamazoo Central High School.

"K-Central students are not being asked to provide proof of citizenship status," Kalamazoo Gazette public editor Joyce Pines writes. "They have been asked to fill out the same paperwork and answer the same questions throughout their entire public school career."

Von Washington Jr., the principal of Kalamazoo Central High School, said he has been told this will not stop any senior from participating in the graduation ceremony, and it's also his understanding that this is standard operating procedure for audiences who will be close to the president.

K-Central found out May 4 that the school won a national competition, for which the school submitted a video, that will bring Obama to its commencement as graduation speaker. The ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. June 7 at Western Michigan University’s basketball arena.

"The students in the Drudge photo are not K-Central students, by the way," she added.

In fact, the photo used by Drudge Report to suggest the Secret Service is looking for illegal immigrants in the mix of the winning school's students was taken in November. According to Politico, that was when President Obama launched the "Educate to Innovate" campaign, a $260 million public-private investment to improve American science and math education.

Despite the new article, and an added update at the top of the page Drudge is linking to, the headline remained atop the Drudge Report web site Wednesday evening.