Senator Barack Obama and his team decided to launch Fight The Smears website because of his encounter with the McClatchy reporter who asked him about the Michelle Obama "whitey" smear tape.
There's an article in Time Magazine about this website and his efforts to fight back the internet smears, which can be disgustingly prevalent due to the anonymous nature of the internet, making it difficult to track down these internet smears.
That don't-go-there approach was Barack Obama's plan for months until, on the candidate's first full day of campaigning as his party's presumed presidential nominee, a reporter from McClatchy Newspapers who was traveling aboard his plane asked him about a particularly toxic bit of hearsay that was zooming around the Internet about his wife Michelle. Obama lost his cool. "We have seen this before. There is dirt and lies that are circulated in e-mails, and they pump them out long enough until finally you, a mainstream reporter, asks me about it," Obama said, bristling. "That gives legs to the story. If somebody has evidence that myself or Michelle or anybody has said something inappropriate, let them do it."
That night, in a conference call, Obama told his top aides it was time for a more aggressive solution to the rumors that have been popping up on the Internet about him and his family for months. And so the Obama campaign has built what might best be described as a Web-based rumor clearinghouse, located at fightthesmears.com, in which it hopes all the shady stories about Obama's faith, his family and his rumored connections with controversial figures can go to die.
Obama is enlisting his millions of supporters to help him hunt down and quash these stories, just as those supporters helped him turn his insurgent campaign into a history-making juggernaut. Says Obama adviser Anita Dunn: "We will not allow Michelle—or, for that matter, Barack—to be defined by rumors."
He needs us to help fight these smears back. This website contains an excellent resource of information that debunks these smears. For instance, the Michelle Obama "Whitey" tape, you go to Fight The Smears to debunk the lies.
Michelle Obama "Whitey Tape"
Michelle Obama Says "Whitey" On a Tape
LIE: Rush Limbaugh says a tape exists of Michelle Obama using the word "whitey" from the pulpit of Trinity United
LIE: Blogger Larry Johnson writes "New and dramatic developments. This is a heads up. I'll post the news Monday morning by 0900 hours."
LIE: Proven GOP sleazemeister Roger Stone says he has "credible that some indelible record exists" of a tape of Michelle Obama using the term "whitey"
LIE: Blogger: "Tape was filmed between June 26th - July 1st 2004 in Chicago, IL at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Conference at Trinity United Church: specifically the Women‚ Event."
Then there's the information debunking the tape:
Truth: No such tape exists. Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word.
Truth: Johnson posted no such update.
Truth: Stone conceded on June 2nd that he hasn’t met anyone who has seen the tape and that it therefore may be a hoax.
Truth: Michelle Obama was not on a panel, and the Rainbow Push Conference was at the Sheraton.
And there are the Muslim smears going around in our e-mail inboxes, and there's the truth right there to debunk the Muslim smears.
I'm glad Senator Obama has taken a much more aggressive stance in combating these internet rumors. We need to help him spread the truth around. Anytime an e-mail lands in our inbox, or a new post appears on Dailykos, MyDD, and on other websites, we'll have the information we need to do a quick debunking.
Senator Obama needs us to do this. Let's help him out!
SUGGESTED ACTION ITEM:
- Gather all the e-mail addresses you have of friends, co-workers, and family members.
- Send them an e-mail blast, talking about Fight The Smears website, and how disgusting you find it that Senator Obama is being smeared this way, and that you strongly believe he's a good man.
- Ask of each person to forward the website to any other friends, co-workers, and family members they might know.
GREAT WEBSITES TO DEBUNK RUMORS
PolitiFact.Org on Senator Barack Obama
Snopes.com On Senator Barack Obama