The Feedback Loop

From the Tallahassee Democrat:

The e-mail seemed believable enough when it arrived last week.

A note attached at the top claimed it was an excerpt from a news account: Donald Rumsfeld firing off innuendoes about Chappaquiddick as Sen. Edward Kennedy pressed him on the Iraq war.

The exchange matched the personalities, after all.

Kennedy, a Democratic senator, has been vocal in his criticism of the Bush administration and the war. And the secretary of defense is known for shooting from the lip when he's angry.

But the story was phony. Never happened. Not like that, anyway.

The e-mail is one of several rumors, half-truths and outright fibs floated over the Internet in a political season marked by strong feelings on war and the economy. Democrats and Republicans both have been targets of hoaxes made easier than ever by the "click-forward" culture.

Fortunately, we've got traditional newspapers all over the internet now, to protect us from this sort of thing. In fact, even as you read this entry you can rest assured that fact checkers for the New York Times and other illustrious organs of truth are busily googling Snopes for verification of the latest "Bush Lied" and "Bush was AWOL!" claims, all to ensure that you get nothing but the truth on these critical issues.

(Likewise, they're looking for connections between various branches of huge multinational corporations, leaving no stone unturned in their tireless quest for truth.)

Long-time visitors to the blogosphere will recognize that "Kennedy all wet" story as a ScrappleFace entry that grew to urban legend status, then was debunked at Snopes. Scott Ott, of course, did not plan that prior to posting. And neither Snopes nor the Democrat reporter implies otherwise. But Snopes (and other such sites) coverage of such stories serves two purposes:

1) De-bunking the myth, and

2) Inspiring people to pass the original story on, in its original form.

(And in this case a third purpose: Snopes became one of ScrappleFace's top referrers. And astute readers will immediately realize the goldmine of possible urban legends that ScrappleFace represents. Axis of Weasels, anyone?)

The Democrat story later notes, in downplaying the significance of internet urban legends, that

The real measure of whether a rumor has changed perceptions is the amount of mainstream media coverage it gets. Media attention means people are hearing and talking about the rumor.

It's the fact-based traditional media that matters, you know. They can visit Snopes and report back to us that

Other anti-Kerry rumors have questioned his military performance in Vietnam, accused him of being rude to subordinates and claimed he once shared a stage with Jane Fonda at an antiwar rally.

Meanwhile, one rumor had President Bush honoring a severely wounded Special Forces soldier by praying over his hospital bed, and another claimed he once called rapper Eminem the "most dangerous threat to American children since polio."

None of them are credible - at best containing only bits of truth, at worst, complete fabrications, according to Snopes.com, a site that investigates urban legends and Internet hoaxes.

You see? Kerry isn't really bad, and Bush isn't really good. It's all Internet hokum.

But none of that matters:

"With the Internet, it makes the spread of that type of information almost viral in nature," said Justin Sayfie, a former spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush who now runs a political news Web site.

<...>

Sayfie is doubtful the rumors will have much effect on the outcome of the election. People don't tend to just accept unsubstantiated reports from the Internet, he said.

Which is a rather funny thing to say… on the internet.

But that's okay, because all kidding aside, there are plenty of folks fact checking the major media too. And so there's a great feedback loop available, and although reporters from the Tallahasee Democrat haven't quite figured it out yet, everyone can google. Wheels within wheels within wheels, everybody fact-checks every one else, and the truth eventually is found. Just choose your source. (And by the way, welcome back Glenn (And thanks). We missed you.)

But is Snopes the ultimate arbiter of truth?

Other anti-Kerry rumors have questioned his military performance in Vietnam, accused him of being rude to subordinates and claimed he once shared a stage with Jane Fonda at an antiwar rally.

False eh? Well, son of a ...

gun.