It’s not news that with the pure quantity of information on the internet comes a fair amount of misinformation. Anyone who has been using e-mail for more than a few weeks or so has gotten messages about the threat of microwaving water in a ceramic cup, or about needles filled with AIDS tainted blood hiding inside seats at movie theaters. These kinds of urban legends have always existed, and the internet just makes it easier to spread them. Since 1995 Snopes.com has worked to debunk these myths, from pop-rocks to Coca-Cola . This being an election year, there’s been a barrage of these urban-legend-style e-mails flowing at a constant pace into my inbox about the various candidates.
In the heat of the Jeremiah Wright controversy, there was an e-mail about Hillary Clinton’s pastor being a pedophile. I remember an e-mail about McCain not being a US Citizen, though I cannot find it now. I also remember about half a dozen different e-mails about Barrack Obama, in both Spanish and English, about him being a radical Muslim and probable terrorist. Of course, none of these stories are true. I’m not sure which pathology is worse: the one that leads to writing these fantastical stories or the one that results in believing them.
If it were just limited to chain mail in your inbox it wouldn’t be as bad as the fact that some “news” outlets have taken to repeating these claims. While Snopes.com already addresses the majority of these claims about our politicians already, the Obama campaign has decided to fight back. Their new (unfortunately named) website Fight the Smears was launched recently in an attempt to fight the most egregious of these attacks, with the first round taking on “Rumors” perpetuated by Rush Limbaugh and other republican pundits.
It is sad that there is so much misinformation out there, that the campaign had to create a page dedicated to fighting it. On the other hand it is encouraging that not only can the media and the people demand more accountability from politicians, but Politicians can now demand the same accountability from reporters and the people. In the end, while the internet does make it easier for cowards to send anonymous e-mails perpetuating lies, it also makes it easier for those seeking the truth to spread it. It injects internet culture with a needed dose of skepticism, even if it is mixed with a bit of spin. For those who wanna skip the spin, do what I do and just use Snopes.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
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3 comments:
Unfortunately it is not only in politics and urban legends that these emails and misinformation have affected our lives.
I live in a US/Mexico border city that has long suffered because of misinformation in the press that turns into urban legend and therefore considered as fact no questions asked. The sad part... it’s not only the internet but also local and national press that has fallen into this pattern, even international press and world organizations have taken the bait.
A few weeks ago someone decided to send an email "warning" the community in my hometown that the "bloodiest" of all weekends was upon us. Having been living a recent dangerous increase in crime it was easy to find the easy target (email recipient) to believe it and the first set of FW: emails came... after the easy targets came the "just in case" crowd set of emails, and so forth. Before I knew it I had received a copy of the same email both in my workplace email as well as my personal email from no less than 20 people. Then the local and national press picked it up and published it as true information from “our sources” and to top it all off, the press across the border and the international press was publishing the report!! Needless to say widespread panic set in and the fourth largest city in Mexico came to a screeching halt! It shut down completely there were no cars in the streets, businesses remained closed, and people went into hiding.
It was a sad day for my hometown, but what does that say about the society we live in when an email without any basis manages to shut down an entire city!!
With no accountability comes irresponsibility. Who do we hold responsible for the damages?
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