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Obama Mia!

August 20th, 2008 by Waldorf Van Buren

I realize the title is overdone. The recent resurgence of ABBA’s hit has embedded the song in the mind of anyone who has a television, or who has seen the billboards that advertise the movie. But that overdone-ness serves a point. I get that there are a plethora of urban myths about Barack Obama, I get that he’s not perfect, and I get that the person who forwarded the email to me has NO idea what my political beliefs are. They must not have talked to me for more than five minutes.

I’ll tell you right here that I’ve voted for Republicans, Democrats, Reform Party candidates, Greenies, Socialist Reformers, Independents, Socialist Workers Party, and Libertarians. I’ve been registered as both a Republican and a Democrat. I’ve also had it, completely had it, with the current party system. But I’m not here to blog about that. I’m here to blog about email smearing.

While Obama (taking a cue from Dean) works miracles of money and support through the tubes and steampipes that make up the Internet, a darker magic emanates from his opponent. Perhaps not actually his opponent – I’ll give him the benefit of some honor – but his opponent’s supporters. The ones that take a slight truth or outright lie and inflate them into something terrible, dark, evil, and above all, false.

It seems innocuous enough. You get an email from a friend, and the subject line is simple. “FWD: Obama is Not a Citizen,” or “FWD: fwd: fwd: fwd: FWD: Obama’s Fifty lies,” or something as colorful and repeatedly forwarded. The friend in the email claims it has to be true because he/she got it from respected source, who is a friend of a cousin. Just close enough to lend credibility and far enough away to make fact-checking something of a hassle. So many unsuspecting readers read it and forward it on. And on and on and on, as the Journey song goes.

It’s very simple to stop and NOT forward the email, even if the contents are true. All it takes is a moment to check out the email on Snopes, factcheck.org, or some other reputable source, many of which are listed in the various places around this very blog. Our links list is littered, almost, with resourceful sites full of facts. However, if you’re reading this, you probably visit those sites already.

The proliferation of misinformation and propaganda is amazing, and it is an example of how nefarious and/or careless some people can be with information. These emails have a starting place. They don’t just appear on the net from whole cloth (digital cloth, I might add) or as a brainchild of Zeus. There has to be an origination point. Is the the original sender the actual source of the myth? While it might be fun to assassinate character as a work of fiction, and practice amateurish Wilde-isms in short bursts of email to a zombie audience, it is not right or ethical.

It’s not an easy area – very grey. Or gray. The email forwards, full of lies, half-truths, and defamatory statements, usually don’t come from a clear single source. They never seem to come directly from Mr. Obama’s opponent(s) (there is more than one opponent) but from their supporters. Are John McCain (and others) responsible for what those independent-minded people and groups decide what to do or say? Should McCain (and others) be accountable for the actions of those that want them to win? According to Judy Nadler and Miriam Schulman:

Candidates should also try in so far as possible to take responsibility
for independent groups making representations on their behalf.
If such a party is disseminating false information, it is not
enough for the politician to say, “They’re not part of my campaign.”

There are quite a few people who will mindlessly forward an email, not because what they read was the truth, or even slightly interesting, but because it might sway an otherwise rational person to believe the lies being propogated by a myriad number of unofficial campaigners for McCain. I like to send back the email listing the Snopes source, a quick rundown of the misinformation, and several links to sites that provide corrections. However, I am afraid that these informational emails fall into virtual desktop recycle bins across the country without the slightest consideration. So much for the truth.

spread the panic!
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 8:42 am and is filed under Panic!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


Discussion (2)¬

  1. Will. M says:
    August 24, 2008 at 11:16 am

    Why is it not possible to backtrack the source of the scurrilous e-mail and then post an alert in another chain-letter calling the liar a liar? And forwarding that letter on to the original forward list. Nothing sends a cockroach crawling to the shadows faster than the bright light of exposure.

  2. Oskar Kennedy says:
    August 24, 2008 at 9:39 pm

    Will. M: It’s notoriously difficult to pinpoint the source of a widely forwarded email. It can get passed along several times before anyone thinks to do any fact checking. It can cross its own trail, forwarding to an original sender from a throwaway email address. If it’s forwarded with the original header information scrubbed out, or sent from a service that distorts or hides that information, it only gets harder. And there’s always the chance that the sender was using someone else’s email.