Read other letters about this article

• Wednesday, August 20, 2008 12:55 AM

  Choose "Reply All"

  Hi everyone,

  There's a side of my family that's pretty nut-jobby, and every once in a while I'll get some ridiculous emails from my uncle. Often they're harmless enough (if jingoistic and absurdly incorrect or unverifiable) that I can laugh and delete them, but I've also received a couple anti-Obama ones that I just couldn't ignore. It took me only about half an hour to throw together a (hopefully) polite but firm correction with supporting links (which is pretty important for people, like McCain, with minimal internet skills). At that point, all I had to do was hit "Reply All," even though there were some names on that list I didn't know.

  In the spirit of all these emails, please feel free to use my response, which I'm pasting below, in any way you feel will help debunk, counter, correct (etc.) this malicious stupidity.

  Yours,

  Tadpaul

  ***

  Hi everyone,

  I'm actually glad to receive this kind of email if it helps me do my part in dispelling this kind of stuff. Google is a wonderful tool, and all you have to do is type in something like "Obama National Anthem" and you'll find the source of these rumors.

  For those who don't know, snopes.com is "the most widely-known

  resource for validating or debunking urban legends, Internet rumors, email forwards, and other such stories of uncertain or questionable origin in popular American culture." (Wikipedia:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snopes)

  Here's a link to the snopes.com article regarding Obama and the

  National Anthem: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/stance.asp

  For those who don't want to click through to the snopes page, here's the relevant text from that page:

  "While this controversy was all the rage on the Internet, political columnist John Semmens included a bit at the end of one of his satirical "Semi-News" columns [link:

  http://azconservative.org/Semmens118.htm] (found on the web site of The Arizona Conservative) offering a mock explanation from the Senator about his non-hand-over-heart stance, poking fun at Obama by having him voice the opinion that 'the American flag is a symbol of oppression' and that the U.S. National Anthem is too 'bellicose' and should be replaced by something gentler like 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing.'

  "This bit of satire evidently came off as too believable to some readers, as it has since been excerpted from Semmens' column and forwarded via e-mail (without attribution) as a genuine statement from Senator Obama. However topical it might be, it's just a bit of political commentary-cum-humor, though, not the Senator's own words."

  Of course, this is not the only Obama falsehood that has been spread via chain email forwards. For a pretty complete list of these, check out:

  http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/obama.asp#anthem

  and

  http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

  Best wishes to all,

  [name]

  —tadpaul Read tadpaul's other letters
  Permalink
  Flag
  Click "Submit Flag" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish.

  Cancel