Carolyn Lewis: In Search of the Poisonous Liar
Posted at 5:36 pm, March 5th, 2008
A few days before the Ohio primary, a plainly dispirited unemployed man who was participating in a “60 Minutes” voter panel [click here for transcript], said that early on he was leaning toward Barack Obama, but since he heard that Obama was a Muslim and didn’t salute the flag, he decided against him.
I sat up in my chair and shouted, ‘THERE IT IS AGAIN!” – the poisonous lie that spreads like a noxious weed.
I live quite a long way from Ohio, in southern Delaware, and the first time I heard that particular lie (among others), it was at the hairdresser’s the morning after Super Tuesday. With my brain awash in political chatter, i made small talk with the women around me by asking whether anybody there had voted for Obama. In the vignette that follows, I call myself Voice One:
Voice Two: He’s the one who doesn’t salute the flag.
Voice One: No, you’re wrong. Of course he salutes the flag.
Voice Three: It’s the other one, Romney. He doesn’t salute the flag. He’s a what-do-you-call-it, a Mormon.
Voice One: He salutes the flag. It’s Jehovah’s Witnesses who don’t. Their religion forbids it.
Voice Two: Oh, I wouldn’t vote for anybody who doesn’t salute the flag. Besides, Obama isn’t a Christian.
Voice One: Of course he’s a Christian, but that shouldn’t matter, should it?
Two and Three: (No answer).
One: By the way, did you vote?
Two: Um, no.
Three: Me neither.
One: (Thinking) Just as well.
A few weeks later, a letter to the editor of one of our local papers indicated how the false stories had apparently penetrated into the local school. In the letter, two older sisters of a fifth grader reported that the teacher said Obama was a Muslim, he didn’t salute the flag, he didn’t swear on the Bible, and what’s more, he was “scary.”
Who is planting these stories? How are they propagated? Are they first found on the Internet or spoken on the odious shock radio and then echoed in churches and classrooms?
With countless reporters assigned to cover virtually the same horse race stories, you would think that one or two could be spun off to investigate this phenomenon. While of course it’s vital to counter the lies with the truth, it’s also important to find out who is the liar and expose him.
Cynics tell us that it’s just old-fashioned politics to slime candidates (and there are countless examples of Swift Boating to support that thesis), but what is vexing is the way the slimer is allowed to get away with it. Surely a bit of dedicated detective work can trace the source of these slanders. And such exposure and public shaming might help befuddled voters to base their choices on facts, not falsehoods.
Of course, why anybody would believe the lies in the first place remains a mystery. But that’s another story.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:59 pm |
Hey, there’s more than a grain of truth to the rumor. He doesn’t wear the flag lapel pin. His wife hasn’t been proud of her country (until her husband had some electoral success). Obama’s pastor, Dr. Wright, blamed the United States for 9/11. Louis Farrakan (who received an award from Dr. Wright, and is a friend and supporter of Obama) hates “Jews and Whites”. And then there is William Ayers, a known anarchist, who bombed the Pentagon and Capitol. He’s a buddy of Obama.
So, do we still believe that Obama Hussein is still a true-blue citizen?
March 7th, 2008 at 8:40 am |
Ah, here is the twisted logic made visible. Do you have to wear a PIN to prove you are patriotic? How dumb can that be. Michelle was saying she was now proud that a man like her husband, a black man, could have gone so far in a usually biased America. It’s true, some of the people he knows are bigots, but do we apply guilt-by-association to judge a candidate? What about the people he knows who are fine and admirable? And a “true-blue citizen” gives you away, my friend, a phrase that smells of narrow conformity. There are a variety of ways to be a citizen, and Obama’s is one of them: serving on the streets of Chicago, fighting for civil rights as a lawyer and in the Illinois Senate, and opposing the war in Iraq. Another giveaway to your opinion is your use of “Hussein.” It’s a snide, fear-mongering tactic.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:37 pm |
It’s just ashame that in 2008, there are still racists and bigots in America. Someone is doing this and I think it’s coming from BOTH, Hillary clinton and Ron Paul’s campaign supporters. Hillary is more than a monster, but I’ll keep it civil here.
For those looking to find out the truth of ANY urban rumors (which is what this is), just go to: Snopes.com and put in Obama in the search box.
Also, go to this site for ALL of the rumors regarding Sen. Obama: http://barackfacts.blogspot.com/