Fact Checking - DIY Guide

A few months ago, I stumbled upon an email from an old acquaintance that pissed me off. I hadn't really talked to the guy that sent me the email in more than two years, but I was still apparently important enough to him to be included in his mass email spam. To be honest, it wasn't that I was receiving spam from him that bothered me, it was the particular type of spam I received: the ill-informed, partisan, fear-driven, anti-candidate-x political spam.

I've always held that if you are going to slam someone, at least slam them for who/what they are, not for your perception or personification of that person. This particular email was one that I'm sure many of you saw. It talked about how Obama was really a radical Muslim hell-bent on taking over America from the inside, and that any true American would do his best to save his fellow citizens from the evil black man's voodoo magic… something like that. Me being me, I couldn't stand for that BS. I mean, I could tolerate an email saying that Obama is somehow wrong for his liberal tax policies (I think he's spot on right, just to clarify). I wouldn't agree per se, but I wouldn't think less of you for sending it. But spamming straight up BS without checking into the accuracy of any of it, particularly when they are blatantly false claims… well, that's when I realize that person's an idiot and cut the ties.

After reading the email, I popped over to Scopes.com to check the legitimacy of the information. I knew it was fake, but I wanted a fairly reliable source to back me up. Sure as shit, that same email my former acquaintance shot off to me was there, plain as day, debunked in all it's stupidity. So I hit reply all, copy and pasted the page text, and provided a link, also adding a snide comment most likely similar to "while I think it's great that you are becoming politically engaged, you should probably inform yourself of the truth of things before attempting to misinform your entire contact list" (this guy was never big in to politics when I knew him, and he had been a member of what is widely regarded as one of the most racist fraternities in the country… just a few thoughts…).

That sparked an interesting email exchange, and shortly thereafter I was removed from his "friends" list on Facebook and MySpace, which I terribly upset about. But the point is, if you're going to make assertations one way or another about someone, in particular about political candidates that could literally change the direction of this country, you should inform yourself first. Check out this article for some great suggestions on fact checking sites. Don't be uninformed, don't fall for stupid political spam tricks, and please don't let people get away with spreading BS lies. Even if those lies are about John McCain. Lord knows there are plenty of true reason to not like the man, we really don't need fake ones too.