General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNo matter how bad things get, can we on the Left agree not to make up fake chain emails.....
.......with fake quotes like the Right does?
This is in the wake of seeing a fake "quote" by Bill Cosby on Facebook spouting Limbaugh-esqe rhetoric that Cosby himself was compelled to warn was not his:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/imtired.asp
If that's not enough, I later came across another gem on Facebook where someone had quoted late night funnyman Conan O'Brien as saying, "Have you heard about McDonald's' new Obama Value Meal? Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it."
Now, I'm a big fan of the CoCo and watch the CoCo every night (thanks to the magic of DVR I love to watch him and The Daily Show back to back), and I never, ever remembered the CoCo ever saying anything remotely similar to that. So my BS meeting immediately rang.
This too appears to be a false quote part of a larger one victimizing every late night comic out there (other than Jon Stewart):
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=67372
As someone on the Snopes board pointed out, you know it was a hack job when even the jokes attributed to Jay Leno (arguably the late night host with the most appeal to a right of center audience) seemed ridiculously fabricated and lame.
And that's not all that has crept onto my Facebook page. In recent weeks, I've been subjected to claims that Adam Lanza never used an AR-15 rifle in the Sandy Hook Elementary Shootings (he did; the false rumor was based on a single piece of errant reporting the day after the shootings that was quickly corrected by the authorities) or that Sandy Hook "father" Bill Stevens had told "Congress" that they'd take his semi-automatic rifle from his cold dead hands (in actuality Stevens' child was not killed in the shootings nor was she even a Sandy Hook student but a student of a neighboring school, and Stevens' testimony was before a state legislative panel and not Congress).
Do these people seriously forget that the Internet exists to fact check blantantly false or errant stories? Do they even care when they lie or mislead? Or do they just operate with the hope that as long as some forwards on their deceitful chain email to everyone in their inbox or pastes it to Facebook, they've won the propganda battle?
Sheesh. So glad I gave up Facebook for Lent.
JustAnotherGen
(31,828 posts)To see a 'repeat' of the Obama's with the wrong hand over their hearts - it even had an inaccurate time/place. I posted an updated link on the person's page showing the photoshop job and asked the person who posted it why they hate America . .. with a wink and a smile of course!
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)Than they do about the person they are against. We aren't as bad about this, but they do crop up sometimes.
Bryant
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)says something about the person in question."
Braynt
Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)Now those guys don't even trust Snoops to tell the truth.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)And yes, Steven Colbert actually said that.
Arkansas Granny
(31,517 posts)rarely get any of those emails at all. They don't like it when you prove them wrong.
LeftofObama
(4,243 posts)I started hitting "reply all" and linking to Snopes and like magic the right wing emails stopped!
No Vested Interest
(5,167 posts)and I try to send it to the original sender on my list, who is someone I have never known.
I figure then it's up to that person to set the story right, if they have the guts to do that.
I also try to let my email list know that I don't appreciate political type emails, since most of my acquaintance leans right. Some still sneak through, though.
Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)My brother sent them to me and he requested I not do that. Was bummed but don't want my brother mad at me so I stopped. Now it won't matter if Snoops says they are lies...they won't believe that. Is there another place to find the truth?
City Lights
(25,171 posts)It really is impossible to get through to some people...
Scout
(8,624 posts)i still send 'em the link, but now i will also include, when possible, Factcheck and Politicfact links.
but you're right, it's really impossible to get through to many of them.