Why is ABC News quoting discredited birther Jerome Corsi?

Jerome Corsi is the guy who co-wrote Unfit for Command, a book so infamously inaccurate that it helped spawn the term "swiftboating" as a description of a political smear campaign.

That alone should tell you everything you need to know about Corsi, but there are so many other reasons he's not a credible figure. There's the birtherism. The appearance on a “pro-White” radio show. The bigoted comments on Free Republic. The promotion of laughable conspiracy theories about global government and the "North American Union." The failed Obama smear book.

So why would ABC quote him in an article about “birth tourism,” the purported efforts by pregnant foreign women to give birth in the United States so their children will be U.S. citizens?

And as though he were some sort of authority on the topic, no less:

[C]ritics say the practice largely goes unchecked and exploits the true meaning of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, enacted after the Civil War to grant citizenship to descendants of slaves.

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside,” the amendment reads.

“It's really an incorrect interpretation of the 14th Amendment,” said Jerome Corsi, a conservative author and columnist who has studied the issue of birth tourism. “Birthright citizenship is a loophole ... [and] as it expands into a business for entrepreneurs in foreign countries who offer birth tourism packages, it markets the loophole to attract additional mothers to the U.S.”

I wonder how much Corsi has “studied the issue.” Apparently, at least enough to write an edition of "Jerome Corsi's Red Alert," a subscribers-only “online global financial strategies newsletter,” on the topic last month. A subscription can be had for only $99 a year, if you're interested.

Red Alert is promoted in weekly excerpts on WorldNetDaily, the right-wing news site where Corsi is a senior staff writer. The edition concerning “birth tourism” is no exception. It seems like being referenced as an authority on the topic by a major news outlet would be good for business, especially when more information about Corsi and “birth tourism” is just a quick Google away.

I'm sure Corsi is grateful to ABC for the exposure.