In an effort to expose false Internet rumors about him and his wife, Senator Barack Obama's campaign launched a Web site Thursday to set the record straight in recognition that refusing to address rumors only perpetuates them. The most recent lie floating on internet is that Michelle Obama used the word "whitey" in a speech from the church pulpit.
The rumor that Michelle Obama railed against "whitey" in a rant at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ has circulated on conservative Republican blogs for weeks and was repeated by a radio talk show host. I will not even mention his name. When I was young I was taught that if you can’t say anything good about a person don’t say anything. The rumor included claims of a videotape of the speech that would be used to bring down Senator Obama's candidacy this fall.
"No such tape exists," the campaign responds on the site, http://www.fightthesmears.com. "Michelle Obama has not spoken from the pulpit at Trinity and has not used that word." The site is a response to the realities that information travels 24 hours a day on blogs and voters are increasingly turning to the Internet for information. It's a particular problem for Senator Obama, who has been the target of persistent misinformation (lies) campaigns online.
E-mails about Barack Obama rank No. 2 on the list of "Hottest Urban Legends" on snopes.com, an Internet rumor-debunking site, behind e-mail greeting cards that could expose computers to viruses. Michelle Obama has often been the target of conservative attacks, to the point of a Tennessee Republican Party Web video questioning her patriotism (an old and tired political means of attacking your opponent); prompting Senator Obama to demand his rivals "lay off my wife."
There also have been more insulting attacks, and not limited to the Internet. Fox News Channel referred to Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama" in a graphic on Wednesday, using the slang description of a woman who has a baby outside of a romantic relationship or marriage. Fox anchor E.D. Hill also referred to it as a "terrorist fist jab" when the Obamas bumped knuckles on the night he clinched the nomination. Fox is building a reputation for racist remarks to the point that all conscious people should boycott Fox and their advertisers.
Other false claims about the Illinois senator — that he's secretly a Muslim who refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance and is intent on destroying America — spread widely during the primary campaign, and Senator Obama made it a habit of telling audiences to respond to e-mail rumors to set the record straight. Barack Obama bristled when he was asked about the "whitey" rumor on his campaign plane last week, saying it was nonsense that shouldn't be repeated in questioning by a mainstream reporter. "It is a destructive aspect of our politics right now," Obama told his traveling press corps. "And simply because something appears in an e-mail, that should lend it no more credence than if you heard it on the corner. And you know, presumably the job of the press is to not go around and spread scurrilous (insulting) rumors like this until there's actually anything, one iota of substance or evidence that would substantiate it."
The site explains that Senator Obama is "a committed Christian" who never attended a radical madrassa during his childhood in Indonesia. Debunking chain e-mails falsely claiming he was sworn into the Senate on the Quran, the holy book of Islam, the Web site includes a photo of him taking his oath of office on the family bible. It shows C-SPAN video of Senator Obama leading the Pledge of Allegiance with his hand over his heart as he presided over the Senate on June 21, 2007. It encourages people to send e-mail to friends and "spread the truth.” "The Obama campaign isn't going to let dishonest smears spread across the Internet unanswered," said spokesman Tommy Vietor. "It's not enough to just know the truth, we have to be proactive and fight back."
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