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'Whitey' Lie Is Just The Beginning

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JOSEPH H. BROWN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 22, 2008

There's an old saying about rumors: even one without a leg to stand on will still make its way all over town. That was when misinformation was spread by word of mouth and most times died out before causing much harm. That was before the Internet and e-mail.

In this age of the Internet, "news" travels faster and farther than ever. Unfortunately, too much of it is false or, even worse, made-up propaganda and character assassination.

Take the many stories about presidential candidate Barack Obama that are being forwarded to millions of Americans. On the urban legend Web site www.snopes.com, Obama e-mails rank number two on their list of "Hottest Urban Legends" behind the one that e-mail greeting cards could expose computers to viruses. You may already have received "50 Lies Told By Barack Obama," or "excerpts" from his books, or the one that the Ku Klux Klan endorsed him.

One Obama rumor - the one that a video exists of his wife, Michelle, railed against "whitey" in a speech from her church's pulpit - even made its way to talk radio. That was in May. I'm not the most tech-savvy guy, but I do know that if such a tape actually did exist, it would have been on YouTube within 24 hours.

All The News Unfit To Print

On a daily basis we receive e-mails from supposedly educated people about Obama being a Muslim (false), refusing to pledge allegiance to the flag (false), being sworn into office on a Koran instead of the Bible (false), and his presidential campaign being funded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (false). "How come you won't print this?" they wonder. Because none of it is true, that's why.

For most of his campaign, Obama's strategy had been to ignore the falsehoods and hope most people would eventually realize they were untrue. No more. So many false stories have spread about the Illinois senator that he has resorted to launching a new Web site to fight the many rumors about him.

Sadly, I think Obama is fighting a losing battle. People who intensely dislike him, either because of his race or his politics or both, will eagerly choose to believe any negative thing they hear, no matter how outlandishly false. Why do they believe these things? Because they so want to believe them, especially if it fits their political or ideological agenda.

So look for things to only get worse between now and Nov. 4, and don't be surprised if we end up with the ugliest presidential campaign in U.S. history. According to former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman, "the swiftboating of John Kerry was nothing compared to what we'll see."

Fact-Checking Getting Harder

So it's a necessary move by Obama. He could learn not only from Kerry's experience in 2004 but also from his presumptive opponent John McCain, who fell victim to a whisper campaign of lies in 2000.

That year, during the South Carolina primary, rumors spread that McCain had fathered a child out of wedlock with a black woman and that he was mentally unstable from his years as a POW in Vietnam. He ignored them and paid the price.

Campaign managers used to trust newspaper editors to sort out the fact and fiction, but they can't count on them anymore in this Internet age. You simply have to be proactive if you hope to avoid being buried under a pack of lies.

As Marvin Gaye warned in "I Heard it Through The Grapevine," believe half of what you see, some or none of what you hear. Welcome to campaign 2008.

Joseph H. Brown is a Tribune editorial writer.

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