The following column was published by the Huntsville Times on September 19, 2010. No part may be republished without the permission of the publisher. The title has been changed to the original submission title. Unfortunately, this mythology still is still given weight by primarily right wing politicians and pundits - the mythical death panels are still being discussed.
Stop. Step away from the mouse. Do not hit the send button.
That's the message that should go off in your head before you forward that political e-mail. Especially if it has any language the writer proclaims that "they swear it's true", "they saw it for themselves" or they heard it from a reliable source. Over the last two years I've received dozens of these and each e-mail had two things in common; it was not true, and it was against President Obama or his policies.
According to Factcheck, the vast majority of these e-mails are against Democrats and their policies. I wonder why?
Although I'm a certified fraud examiner I didn't need forensic skills to debunk these. Within five minutes of beginning to check these e-mails I've been able to find documentation to disprove every one. For the record, President Obama was born in Hawaii, does put his hand over his heart to say the Pledge and during the National Anthem, is a Christian and did not rename the White House Christmas tree a "holiday tree."
He did participate in the National Day of Prayer. Michelle Obama is not doing away with Christmas at the White House and the taxpayers did not pay for 40 of her friends to fly to Spain.
The Nuclear Security Summit logo is not a disguised Islamic crescent, nor is the Obama logo, nor is the Missile Defense Agency's.
The radicals who attacked us on Sept. 11 are not the people who want to build an Islamic Center in New York. Confusing clerics like Iman Feisal Abdul Rauf for the terrorists is like mixing up Southern Baptists and the Westboro Baptist Church.
On the immigration front, headless bodies are not being found all over the desert in Arizona.
We now know that not only was the Shirley Sherrod tape heavily edited to be misleading, but so were the Acorn tapes that made so much news last year. Did anyone receive an e-mail retraction over that?
One of the most despicable themes of these e-mails is the attempt to scare senior citizens about the contents of the health care bill. It never contained language creating death panels nor did it propose anything even closely resembling Canada's or the UK's health care systems. Most of the horror stories about these systems are also untrue, but the e-mails keep coming.
Based on what I've seen, the bill passed would most resemble the Swiss system, but I guess it's just not very sexy to pick on the Swiss.
What did the bill do? It extended the soundness of the Medicare Trust Fund by 12 years among other benefits. Don't believe me? Fine, but please don't send me another doctored photograph, or copy of an easily provable phony document. You should be checking these yourself. Factcheck.org, Snopes or the wire services are useful in debunking sham emails.
Why are outrageous e-mail claims accepted as fact without checking? Could it be that the senders are looking for reasons to demonize the opposition? They don't need to verify the facts, because in their feedback loop the rumor is already fact in their mind.
Why does any of this matter? It's very simple. In order to make this country better we need to be working with facts, not fiction. You don't have to like the president, but should you dislike him for fictional evils? Should you base your vote on far-fetched conspiracy theories or reasoned arguments? Do we want to exhume McCarthy?
Are you OK with character assassination and witch-hunts as political tools? Are anonymous writers spreading libelous rumors OK as long as they support your point of view? Certainly, by repeating the latest conspiracy theory or e-mail rumor, you can make the other guy less popular. Should we, the mob, react to every unchecked rumor or should we ask for proof? What will you do with your next forwarded e-mail?
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