A good example of how satire becomes gossip and then “news”.
Seems a group of conservative bloggers have fallen victim to allowing their anti Obama political agenda to trump real news judgment and the most elemental of fact checking. Shocking right?
The San Fransisco Chronicle gossip section The Daily Dish “reports“:
Hip-hop star Snoop Dogg has launched a scathing attack on U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama, accusing him of gleaning support from the Ku Klux Klan.
Conservative bloggers Jules Crittenden, Qando, Outside the Beltway, and Macsmind all “report” the story as being stupid, or “weird”, but as tacitly true since not one of them notes that the story is actually untrue.
It’s an excellent opportunity to knock on Obama, true or not. Writes Macranger:
…about the KKK donations, I’ll check it out. Wouldn’t surprise me considering all the other racist and radical support he has received.
Implying the Snoop “allegations” are news, Crittenden writes of of it and Obama:
The guy can’t catch a break.
McQ at Qando refers to it as “the weird story of the week” but then takes the story at face value and goes impishly meta on it with the usual dose of bad conservative humor:
I take it Calvin doesn’t endorse Obama? Or does he?His point about McCain and Clinton not being able to [bleep] with Obama is pretty spot on though. Heck if Clinton is called a racist every time she turns around, then McCain hasn’t a chance. And then there are the ‘white ladies’.
James Joyner puts the Obama camp’s denial of the story, (which shows just how far this disinformation has gone) at the top of his post, and also treats the story as possibly true, if gossip.
But, Cara Harrington at Gone Hollywood gets the Idiocracy Award for this one, for actually asking Obama about it at an appearance (note the self important perspective):
As camera flashes were blinding I stood in the front row and yelled out:“Mr. Obama how do you feel about Snoop Dog accusing you of accepting funding from the KKK?”
The people around me looked at me like I just asked him for a mustache ride. I really wasn’t shocked. Apparently not hearing me, I yelled it again as I made eye contact with him. Obviously trying to make it to the podium he merely said:
“It is completely untrue.”
Still smiling he moved on unfazed.
Just how stupid is this entire story? Fantastically. Here’s the icing on the cake:
The entire “Obama gets support from the KKK” story is a satire written by the UK comedy site, a Brit version of The Onion called The Daily Squib!
But, it could be true… right? Only if you tell half the truth. The hallmark of all great propaganda.
