We live in dangerous times. News moves at the speed of light, and media outlets are constantly trying to beat each other to the scoop. In the age of social media, stories are being spread even faster. I find it disturbing when you see the media repeating stories, even after they have been debunked. For example, you still see stories in the media about President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, his alleged attendance of a madrassa (an Islamic school) and him being a “secret Muslim,” whatever that means. A story about ISIS serving a grieving mother the remains of her son has been reported in several tabloids, such as The Daily Mail, which even though it gets 100 million page views per month, is not a reliable source. Snopes, a site which debunks urban legends, has cast doubt on this story and said since it’s from a single source reporting a second-hand event, it’s unlikely to be true. Snopes also said the story sounds remarkably similar to a “South Park” episode. Recently there were several stories in the media saying Obama threatened to shoot down Israeli planes, if they attacked Iran. This story is not even believable, and has been debunked by Mediaite. But I’ve seen it reported, even by liberal outlets like Alan Colmes’ website. It seems reporters don’t even to bother to double check stories anymore. They just see a story being picked up by other news sources and run with it. However, in the age of Google it only takes a few more minutes to do some searching and determine if a story smells fishy or not. This is similar to an outlandish story that made it’s way around the conservative media and was repeated by the infamously loopy Rep. Michele Bachmann a few years ago. The story, which originated from an obscure Indian news site, declared Obama was planning to spend $200 million per day on a state trip to Mumbai. I first heard the story from a former boss of mine, who was a tea party member, and immediately didn’t believe it. Factcheck stated it was unlikely one trip would cost $200 million per day, when according to the Congressional Research Service, the Afghanistan war cost $190 million per day. But the story gained so much traction, it eventually had to be debunked by Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell, who pointed out the alleged 34 ships assigned to the president’s security detail would have accounted for 10 percent of the Navy. Morrell dismissed the story as laughable. PR professionals have to be lightening fast squelching false stories like this, because in today’s media environment they have the potential to go viral and be spread to thousands of eyeballs within a few minutes. The frightening part of this phenomena is the more times a false story is reported, the more likely it is to be believed. Adolph Hitler, a master of propaganda, once said if “you repeat a lie enough times, eventually it becomes the truth.” However, even when you eventually manage to get these false stories retracted, there are still going to be people who believe them. Richard Jewell, the security guard who discovered the Centennial Olympic Park bombs in Atlanta, was vilified by the media, who painted him as a suspect. He later successfully sued the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, NBC and CNN getting them to issue apologies. Jewell later said even though he was cleared by the FBI, some people still believed he had something to do with the bombing, which was later attributed to Eric Rudolph, an anti-gay, anti-abortion terrorist. FOX News withdrew the madrassa story, but it’s still being repeated. Republican politicians are still parrotting stories about Muslim no-go zones in France and America, even though they have been repeatedly debunked. The city of Paris has even named FOX News in a lawsuit over this. The network had to issue several retractions after “security expert” Steve Emerson said Birmingham, England was “totally Muslim.” Again, this was something anyone with a basic knowledge of the city knew was untrue. It also could have been disproved with a 30-second Google search. Six years into the Obama presidency, after two birth certificates, newspaper records, and statements from the Hawaii governor and the doctor who delivered Obama have been produced, some people still believe he was born in Kenya. This is not just an issue with Democratic politicians. Some people believe President George W. Bush orchestrated 9/11. The 9/11 truther movement is a cottage industry which has produced books, videos and films. “Loose Change,” a series of Internet documentaries that weave together various conspiracy theories, has received millions of YouTube views. The movies, produced by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, were later denounced by “Loose Change” director Dylan Avery, who declared the Bush administration was so incompetent it could never pull off an elaborate conspiracy. The Internet and social media have revolutionized the way we consume and share news, but there is a dark side to electronic news. In the Internet age, rumors and false stories can have tremendous staying power and sometimes even the truth can’t kill them.
