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The Truth in Forwarding Pledge: A Simple Way to Make a Difference

Submitted by Ken Watts on Fri, 11/16/2007 - 12:54

Here it is: a simple way to raise the standard of information on the internet.

The idea is to fight fire with fire—by creating a forwarding campaign that will help to clean up forwarding.

If you want to participate, just copy the message between the lines at the end of this post, paste it into an email, add the title of this post ("The Truth in Forwarding Pledge: A Simple Way to Make a Difference") to the subject line, and send it to all your friends.

This isn't going to stop all the propaganda, but if enough of us do it, it should slow the propaganda down. And once people start taking responsibility for the information they pass on, we may find that there are as many corrections flying around as lies.

The beautiful part is that it will be a completely grassroots campaign: individuals, making things better.

But before we get to the email (you can scroll down now if you want to read it first), a quick word about fact-checking (it's not that hard):

I expect to revise this post as time goes on, adding helpful hints about how to go about fact-checking any emails you do receive.

For now, I'll just explain about Snopes.com, and ask that anyone who has another really good source drop me an email about it. I'll check them out, and add any that appear trustworthy to the list.

Snopes is a very reliable source. Many of you may have already heard of it or used it.

It's been around since 1995, and is dedicated to researching rumors, especially those in forwarded emails.

Be sure to read the entire article when using Snopes, though, rather than simply looking for the "true" or "false" at the beginning, because often the important part of the explanation comes at the end.

A rumor might be technically true, but the article may end up pointing out that the real substance of the matter is different than the email version suggests.

For example: An email has gone around claiming that Barack Obama was caught not putting his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance. It goes on to say that he refused to say the pledge, and implies that he does these things as a matter of course.

The Snopes article correctly marks the first allegation as true, but if you read the entire article, you find out that

  1. There is only one documented case of this,
  2. That there are other documented cases in which he did put his hand over his heart, and
  3. That he did say the pledge of allegiance in the case where he neglected to put his hand over his heart.

So, while the event that the email talks about did happen, the further claims and generalizations it makes about Barack are all false.

If I were checking out that email, I wouldn't want to pass on such misleading information.

Likewise, another email claims to show a picture of George W. Bush, in a college rugby match, delivering an illegal punch to the face of an opposing player.

Snopes marks this as "true" as well. But if you read the entire article, you find out that

  1. There's some uncertainty about the legitimacy of the caption, which describes the punch, and
  2. Still photos of athletes in action can often make perfectly innocent behavior look as though it's violent.

In other words, the "true" merely means (correctly) that the picture is a real picture of Bush. But, as in the case of Barack Obama, the interpretations and allegations in the email may not be true.

I wouldn't pass that one on either. In fact, I would be more likely to pass on a correction.

So it's important to read the entire article.

That's "fact-checking 101" for now.

Here's the pledge:

(Just copy the message between the lines below, paste it into the body of an email, add "The Truth in Forwarding Pledge: A Simple Way to Make a Difference" to the subject line, and send it to your list of friends.)



Dear friend,

Even if you don't often forward emails, you may want to make an exception in this case.

Read on:

Email forwarding has recently become a propaganda weapon.

Thousands of forwarded emails now fill millions of in-boxes, spreading political and social viewpoints.

We tend to believe these emails, because they come from friends—people we know and respect.

But ask yourself: how often have you taken the time and effort to check the "facts" in these emails, before sending them on?

Almost never, right?

And that is probably true of the person who sent them to you, and everyone else in the chain—all the way back to the unknown person who started it.

(Why don't you know who that is?)

A healthy democracy depends on solid, accurate, information.

As citizens, we need to be well-informed.

We don't need a constant onslaught of lies and propaganda filling our in-boxes, with "facts" that may not be true.

"Facts" that have been invented by someone who wants to influence us for their own reasons.

This is not a liberal or a conservative issue.

John McCain had lies spread about his personal life during a recent election campaign.

So did Barack Obama.

But the victims aren't the politicians.

The victims are we, the voters, who have to make important decisions with flawed information.

No law in a free country can stop these emails from being written.

We can't depend on some government agency to censor them.

But we can do something about this problem directly.

We can take the simple pledge below:


I, the person who sent you this email, have taken the following pledge.


1) I will not forward an email to you unless I have taken the time to verify any facts it contains—personally.

2) I will not rely on the last person who sent it, no matter how much I trust them.

3) I will do this even if—especially if—I agree with the sentiment it expresses.

4) If I make a mistake, and you catch it, let me know and I will send a correction out to everyone I originally forwarded the email to.

5) If I find a mistake in an email you forwarded to me, I will let you know, as well.


I urge you to take this pledge with me, and forward this email to everyone you know.

Yes, you'll probably forward fewer emails in the future.

But you'll make up for the quantity by creating quality—a higher quality of information on the Internet, and a more truth-based society.

And you'll gain a reputation for accurate knowledge and a sense of fair play.

Sincerely yours,

The person who forwarded this message to you, and

Ken Watts

[Ken Watts is the person who started this email, and who isn't hiding behind a long list of forwards. His website is http://dailymull.com . You can find a copy of this email there, if you want to check whether it has been changed, or whether he is really the one who started it. There are also some tips there about how to go about your fact-checking.]


Happy forwarding!