Both I and my friends have been working to correct some of the vicious misinformation that's been floating around right-wing blogs and email forwards. The latest rounds involve charging Barack as an anti-white racist, and spreading the lie that he's a Muslim.
FactCheck.org is a service I've subscribed to for years to keep politicians and organizations on both sides of the aisle honest, and exposing them when they aren't.
The latest article from FactCheck addresses both of the latest anti-Obama misinformation campaigns:
If these two nasty e-mail messages are any indication, the 2008 presidential campaign is becoming a very dirty one.
One claims that Obama is "certainly a racist" by virtue of belonging to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, which it says "will accept only black parishoners" and espouses a commitment to Africa. Actually, a white theology professor says he's been "welcomed enthusiastically" at the church, as have other non-blacks.
Another e-mail claims that Obama "is a Muslim," attended a "Wahabi" school in Indonesia, took his Senate oath on the Koran, refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and is part of an Islamic plot to take over the U.S. Each of these statements is false.
These false appeals to bigotry and fear remind us of the infamous whispering campaign of eight years ago, when anonymous messages just before the South Carolina primary falsely accused Republican candidate John McCain of fathering an illegitimate child by a black woman.
Check out the full article for much more information, and when you hear or read people spreading false claims and lies about candidates on either side of the aisle, please step up and fight it with truth.
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