Republican rumors
One of my coworkers-in-the-hallway claimed that Snopes is biased because most of the rumors about McCain are true and most of the ones about Obama are false.
I responded that perhaps (since neither of us had seen any false assertions about McCain but several of the false claims about Obama) Snopes' data suggested a Republican proficiency at creating and spreading false rumors. He didn't like that suggestion, but was unable to either disprove it or offer an alternative explanation other than the ever-popular and ever-vacuous "liberal bias."
Tallying the results from Snopes for McCain and Obama shows an amazing disparity:
McCain: 5 rumors (2 false, 2 true, 1 undetermined)
Obama: 33 rumors (20 false, 4 true, 3 undetermined, 6 multiple truth values)
It appears that the GOP is not only much more prolific in spreading rumors, they're also much less interested in their veracity.
Comments
Exactly!
Like Wikipedia or FactCheck, the most important aspect of Snopes is its reputation for honesty and impartiality. If they were to throw objectivity out the window for political reasons, would they remain trustworthy for anything else? I doubt it.
If they slanted an expose, the blogosphere would be all over it in a nanosecond...and if they didn't fix it, their reputation would be rapidly circling the drain.
Posted by: cognitivedissident
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September 13, 2008 11:15 AM
Yes, he really said that...and I doubt that he was the only one thinking it. (Hence my pessimistic prediction.)
I want a president who was a professor of constitutional law...is that too much to ask?
Posted by: cognitivedissident
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September 13, 2008 11:03 AM
And even if Snopes is lying up a storm, wouldn't the questions it raises stimulate curious, intelligent minds to do some independent "discovery" work?
Posted by: leslie | September 13, 2008 10:33 AM
Really? Really????
They said that?
Your prediction is spot on, I'm afraid.
I just want a president that can speak without having to turn pages, and knows something about why we have a constitution...
Posted by: leslie | September 13, 2008 10:31 AM
There was more yesterday...the other culprit remarked "I just want a president who was born in the United States." My mouth fell open, and out came "The last time I checked, Hawaii was a state and Panama wasn't."
I predict a long and stormy election season...
Posted by: cognitivedissident
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September 13, 2008 8:19 AM
There's a bunch of "in the hallway" goin' on here... :)
Posted by: leslie | September 13, 2008 1:32 AM