ANOTHER EXAMPLE of email propaganda has surfaced, this one forwarded by a liberal friend.
That fact is important, because it goes to the heart of how these things are done. We often forward these things, not because we care about the information in them, but because they're amusing:
The Fine Art of Political Rhetoric
Judy Wallman, a professional genealogy researcher in southern California, was doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that she shared a common ancestor with Senator Harry Reid -- one Remus Reid, a great-great uncle of Harry Reid's Uncle Remus was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889.
The only photograph of Remus that Ms. Wallman was able to locate shows him standing on the gallows in Montana territory.
On the back of the picture Judy obtained during her research is this inscription: 'Remus Reid, horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889.'
So, Ms. Wallman recently e-mailed Senator Reid for information about their common ancestor.
Believe it or not, Harry Reid's staff sent back the following biographical sketch for her genealogy research:
'Remus Reid was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory. His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad.In 1887,he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.'
NOW if that's not about the most beautiful (not to mention a bit misleading) political SPIN you've ever seen, I'd like to know what is.
It's very amusing, amusing enough for my friend to pass on without a thought.
But there are two problems:
- It's not true. As I've pointed out other places, one of the most important values for a democracy is small-t truth: simply getting the basic facts straight. One of the ways email propaganda gets around our commitment to truth is by disguising its claims as humor. Since we think we're just passing a joke along, it doesn't occur to us to fact-check, and the false information gets passed along with the joke.
The picture in the email is actually a photo of the hanging of Tom Ketchum, an outlaw who operated at the same time, and in the same area, as Butch Cassidy. The false story about the spin is an old standby, it gets dragged out, dusted off, and applied to a new politician every year or so. It's been applied, recently, to Al Gore and to Hilary Clinton. - The subtext, which is the real message of the email, is that Senator Harry Reid is not only the relative of an outlaw, but is willing to lie to cover it up. This paints him as both dishonest and petty. The deeper implication is that Democrats cannot be counted on to tell the truth.
Of course the email doesn't say this straight out, it just guides the reader in that direction. We deduce it almost subconsciously, and it becomes just another little piece of evidence in the back of our mind about Harry Reid and Democrats in general.
That's how propaganda works.
Of course the joke is a lot less funny when we realize that the "response" from Reid's office was written, not by a politician, but by the author of the email. It's even less funny when we realize that the "facts" were constructed in order to make the "spin" sound plausible.
I'm very tempted to believe this is the work of a professional. But it may not be, it may just be some overzealous Republican who sees a chance to say something nasty about a Democrat and thinks it's a funny stunt.
It doesn't really matter. Either way the same damage is done. The problem isn't who's doing it, the problem is the whole attitude toward truth—the idea that small-t truth can be sacrificed on the altar of political rhetoric.
At least, that's what I think today.
