We studiously avoided much political discussion while my parents were visiting us here in France, and for good reason. However, after my dad brought up Obama's "Muslim ties," I suggested that he go to Snopes.com to check out the truth of these kinds of rumors and innuendo.
Tonight I received an email that dad forwarded to me with the subject line "Snopes is Not to be Trusted!" The gist of that email, and my response to my dad's having sent it along (without comment) is below the fold.
My dad forwarded to me the following tidbit o' joy that he had received from someone who'd received it from someone (and so on down the line):
I have recently discovered that Snopes.com is owned by a flaming liberal and this man is in the tank for Obama. There are many things they have listed on their site as a hoax and yet you can go to Youtube yourself and find the video of Obama actually saying these things. So you see, you cannot and should not trust Snopes.com....ever for anything that remotely resembles truth! ...
This website is backing Obama and is covering up for him. They will say anything that makes him look bad is a hoax and they also tell lies on the other side about McCain and Palin.
Anyway just FYI please don't use Snopes.com anymore for fact checking and make your friends aware of their political leanings as well. Many people still think Snopes.com is neutral and they can be trusted as factual. We need to make sure everyone is aware that that is a hoax in itself.
I wrote the following to my dad, and made sure that I copied it to all of the 30 or so people whose addresses were included in the various forwarded iterations:
Dear Dad,
The problem with these kinds of emails is that whoever wrote the original is relying on the fact that few people are going to make the effort to verify the writer's assertions. You will note that the person who originally sent this (or quite possibly just forwarded it from another source) doesn't actually name the "flaming liberal" who supposedly owns Snopes.com and is "in the bag for Obama." It would be too easy for someone to do a quick google or yahoo search for that name to see if the "flaming liberal" is (a) a real person; (b) truly a "flaming liberal"; (c) actually owns Snopes.com, and so on.
This author of this email also counts on the fact that few people are going to bother to actually go to the Snopes.com website and check out its content and objectivity (or supposed lack of it) for themselves. Once again, the writer makes blanket statements about Snopes' supposed partisan bias without giving any specific examples that you or other readers could easily look up both on the Snopes site and on other sites, including youtube.com.
Sowing doubt about an information source's objectivity is a very useful political device, especially when these nonpartisan sites present documented material that thoroughly debunks some of the wild and outlandish claims certain parties have made about various candidates' backgrounds and policy positions.
All this said, there are other sources of information with owners who cannot be accused of being "flaming liberals," among which is most notably www.factcheck.org, run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center and funded principally by the Annenberg Foundation (founded and named for Republican Walter Annenberg).
I strongly encourage you to look at Snopes.com for yourself and check out some of its claims by comparing it to the same issues and topics covered on factcheck.org and elsewhere. Take a look at some youtube videos (complete segments are better than short clips, for obvious reasons) and see if this candidate or that candidate actually said what was reported. I have personally taken the trouble to watch many youtube clips and to compare them both to transcripts and to what people (including writers of emails such as this one) say that such-and-such a candidate said. (The selective editing and sometimes amazingly "creative" interpretations I've found in this regard would be funny if this kind of rank dishonesty did not have enormous consequences for our country's political process and future.)
In short, emails such as the one you forwarded to me have very particular aims and goals in mind, and it is very rare that their claims have much basis in fact.
Much love to you and Mom,
[mofembot]