(From the Janesville Messenger, 10-7-07)
During the week of September 11, I received a patriotic and much-forwarded e-mail entitled “Twin Towers.” It featured a pre-attack photo of the World Trade Center and an excerpt from Oliver North’s testimony in front of a Senate committee during the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings.
What does Oliver North have to do with the 9-11 attacks? Well, in this excerpt, North was questioned about a $60,000 home security system he had purchased. North responded that he was in fear of his life because a terrorist had threatened him and his family. He claimed this terrorist was the most evil man alive and he recommended the U.S. form a team of assassins to kill him. The terrorist’s name was Osama bin Laden. The Senator questioning him, who scoffed at North’s suggestion, was Al Gore.
It’s an interesting little excerpt. It would be even more interesting if any of it were true.
This is just the latest example of people believing anything they read in an e-mail, and then forwarding it to all of their friends. For people with an agenda – like the original author of this e-mail obviously had – the Internet must be a Godsend. Gossipers and rumormongers can now share with the entire world, not just their immediate circle of acquaintances.
If you have e-mail, you have likely received one or more of the following totally false chain e-mails:
· Forward this e-mail to 10 people, and Miller will send you free beer (or Microsoft will send you money).
· Unsuspecting travelers are being drugged and waking up in a bathtub full of ice with their kidneys removed.
· Dr. Pepper (or Pepsi) is printing the Pledge of Allegiance on their soda cans without the line “under God.”
· Don’t dial a certain area code, or thousands of dollars of charges will show up on your phone bill.
These e-mails are getting more and more annoying, although the kidney one inspired a very funny cartoon on YouTube called “Charlie The Unicorn.” But all of these frivolous e-mails could have been easily debunked by going to a website called Snopes.com. The site is devoted to tracking down Internet rumors and declaring them true or false.
A five-minute trip to Snopes revealed that the North story was flat-out bunk. In fact, North himself drafted a letter setting the record straight, once this e-mail started making the rounds and he started getting asked about it. It turns out that North never mentioned Osama bin Laden during his testimony, and Al Gore wasn’t even part of this Senate committee. North did mention an evil terrorist during his testimony, however. It was the Palestinian guerilla Abu Nidal, whom North offered to meet man-to-man on equal terms. So at least that gives a basis for how this Oliver Twisted story got started.
Even chain e-mails that are not mean-spirited or politically motivated suffer credibility issues. I’ve had the same group of jokes e-mailed to me several times, variously attributed to George Carlin, Steven Wright and Rodney Dangerfield. A friend recently sent me a very funny statement by British comedian John Cleese declaring America’s independence from Britain revoked. Just out of curiosity, I looked it up on Snopes. Did Cleese really write it? Nope.
It’s almost like a line from comedian Bob Saget’s old routine. He would say something ridiculous, then claim it was true by saying, “No, really. I read that. I wrote it down, and I read it.”
So now whenever I get one of these false e-mails that has been forwarded to a group of people, I reply to the whole group and include the link to Snopes.com that proves it false. This probably has embarrassed more than a few people, and hopefully, removed me from some group e-mail lists. But I consider it my duty to set things straight, so I am forming a group to try to stamp out these goofy e-mail forwards once and for all.
It’s called the National Educational Council for Truth In E-mail (NEC-TIE). Our slogan: “Choking on chain e-mail? Join NEC-TIE!”
Look us up on Snopes.
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