The internet has given rise to a powerful but precarious rumor mill. From claims that plastic wrap in microwave ovens causes cancer (untrue) to stories of finding a human finger in a bowl of chili (also untrue), misinformation spreads through the internet at viral speed and infects the public consciousness.
We Jews, unfortunately, seem especially susceptible to “e-missives”: we are inter-connected through a web of interlocking networks; we are highly educated users of the internet; and we sometimes feel unfairly targeted and, in the spirit of self-defense, are motivated to call our detractors on the carpet.
Some urban legends are told so many times by so many people that they harden into conventional wisdom. Because lies are often more compelling than truth, rarely does setting the record straight undo the damage. I still receive urban legends that were disproved more than five years ago.
That’s why it’s so imperative that people of good will do some fact checking before they hit the send button.
The presidential race has only poured fuel on the fire, spreading such falsehoods as “Barack Obama grew up a radical Muslim.”
Everyone reading this by now has heard this claim and probably a good percentage still believe it is true, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Family or friends often ask me what AJC plans to do about some supposed outrage or whether a particular chain email is true (rarely), very often after the person has already sent the problem email to 200 of his or her closest friends.
I am always struck at how quick some are to send something out that they have not bothered to verify. In one instance, a man sent out an email hoax with the disclaimer “I am not certain of the veracity of the claims herein. But it’s extremely important that we get to the bottom of this.” He, too, helped spread the lie.
One disturbing email circulating since the early 2000s exaggerated the problem of anti-Semitism in France and called on people to boycott a fellow democracy. Another similar email was fabricated in the name of Senator Joe Lieberman expressing his “contempt” for France.
These misleading e-missives led some in the Jewish community to undertake ill-advised boycott campaigns that did nothing to improve conditions for French Jews. AJC’s much more carefully considered analysis of the situation in France led to an ongoing, fruitful dialogue with French government officials, and ultimately to a much more forceful approach in confronting anti-Semitism.
My all time favorite Jewish urban legend gone awry revealed that schools in the United Kingdom had stopped teaching about the Holocaust because they didn’t want to offend Muslims. It turned out that only one school in the entire country ceased teaching about the Holocaust (some of the most potent urban legends are based on partial truths).
A later version from last fall stated that the University of Kentucky had stopped teaching Holocaust education. It turns out that the rumor monger had mistaken the “UK” (i.e. United Kingdom) in the original urban legend for “University of Kentucky.” Imagine the concerned Jewish parents who, after reading that email, decided against sending their kids to the university!
In these instances, the damage was spread out across an entire country or university. But some urban legends have unfairly tarnished the reputation of individuals.
A colleague recently sent me a heartrending email from a friend maligned for raising money for anti-Semitic causes and for being a Holocaust denier. Even if one took the email at face value, the accusation was based on astonishingly flimsy evidence.
In fact, the accused has a long track record of speaking out against anti-Semitism and had even raised money for a film about a diplomat who saved Jews during the Holocaust. This man’s reputation may never fully recover.
To be sure, mass email can be a powerful force for good. The same viral phenomena that spread lies can also raise awareness of profound truths, such as the plight of the people of Darfur or the threat posed by Iran. Email campaigns can mobilize well meaning people around important issues, and lead to positive change.
But we do damage to our credibility and our cause, not to mention the reputations of others, when we send out inane and false emails to our lists. Next time you are tempted, ask a credible source and check the claim on one of several good urban legend websites such as snopes.com.
And if you can’t figure out the answer, err on the side of caution and send out this posting instead. Let’s help slow down the spread of email hoaxes.
David Bernstein is associate director of AJC’s Community Services Department.
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18 users responded in this post
I am glad that I can be an inspirational force for you to write this article! Mom
Could we leave OBAMA out of this mix please? Not everyone has settled on what his Jewish proclivities are and we REALLY don’t know that much about him…..He was not a good example to use, really.
This is an incredibly important posting. You mention that, “we Jews, unfortunately, seem especially susceptible to ‘e-missives’.” Much to my dismay this seems to be true. The Jewish Community has built incredible goodwill, respect and influence through a reputation for being informed and discriminating. I fear that we will have done or reputation and influence longterm damage by the way we have reacted to smear emails that have received and distributed during our presidential campaign. When we help smear others it becomes far more difficult to claim the high ground when others are actively smearing us. My experience suggests that this has been more of a problem for older members of our community than our more internet savvy younger generation. Regardless, what can we as a community do to change our ways? If this continues we will surely pay a price.
I am not Jewish, but certianly can understand and relate to all the concerns raised by Mr.Bernstein. I don’t know how many (several) email hoaxes my mother has passed on to me; it does seem to be a problem for the older generation or those more trusting and gullible among us. I would think, Jews, as historical victims of prejudice and mass hysteria, would be very careful about “falling for” this kind of stuff.As the previous writers have said,we (Jew and Non-Jew alike) are not well served by this sort of gossip-mongering.
Intriguing and very important article indeed.
Prior to reading this piece did no pay attention nor realized the impact of these “urban legends” that are flourishing in this day and age, given the ease of spreading the word by email, it is truly infectious!
I find the subject to be more universal than Jewish but am proud that a member of our tribe, as well as a friend, articulated it so well and brought it up to light. OR LAGOYIM.
David, I would encourage you to make this available to a broader audience - Washington post? As you have done successfully in the past, but with a universal twist rather than the narrow Jewish perspective.
Sharon
David: Thanks for this excellent posting.
First, I think the Obama issue is incredibly relevant. What difference does it make if he is Muslim or not. Jews, Mormons and many others in this country have had their religion used against them. We lose credibility when we are upset when we are maligned for our religion but aren’t equally upset when others are maligned for their religion. Where Obama is on issues regarding Israel is totally a separate issue from whether he is Christian, Muslim,or an agnostic.
Second, you are so right on the money regarding rumors flying around. I spend so much time telling friends to double check their facts. They get an email from somebody or read some posting somewhere and it is suddenly fact. The Internet is a great blessing in that we can access lots of information. But a huge amount of that information is bogus! We have to develop more personal discipline to checking facts before telling others they are facts. Thanks. john
David,
I want to congratulate you for this posting. These e-mails that fly around are just depressing, and those of us who are offended by them have no way of fighting back.
Your note helps immensely. If you can figure out how to broaden the audience for your important sentiments, you would find enormous support, I am sure.
Eric
Thank you for taking on this important issue. Jessica’s comment about us not knowing Senator Obama’s “Jewish proclivities” show how the spread of lies and innuendo via e-mails have led people to believe untruths. Senator Obama has clearly stated support for Israel, denounced anti-Semitism, and has a positive relationship with the Jewish community.
No matter where one’s support lies in this presidential election, one should vote on facts and not be used by those that seek to attack candidates they do not like via false, unsubstantiated rumors. As Jews we should be aware of people using lies masked as truths to attack a minority and we should not allow people to use our fears and concerns to spread lies as a means to sabotage a candidate for office they dislike due political disagreements.
No matter where one’s support lies in this presidential election, one should vote on facts and not be used by those that seek to attack candidates they do not like via false, unsubstantiated rumors. As Jews we should be aware of people using lies masked as truths to attack a minority and we should not allow people to use our fears and concerns to spread lies as a means to sabotage a candidate for office they dislike due to political disagreements.
David,
Thank you for your timely post, as a Jew and a journalist I have been very disturbed by the false information flying around about Barack Obama in the Jewish community … and elsewhere.
Sometimes the facts are hard to find, but they are out there if you do your research. Never take one source–especially an email–as gospel!
Justin is correct. The smear campaign against Obama is disgraceful and is a most apt example for Mr. Bernstein’s piece.
Senator Obama’s positions on Israel couldn’t be clearer: co-sponsor of the 2006 Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, vocal supporter of Israel’s right to self-defense during the Hezbollah war (while the world was screaming “disproportionate force”), and unwavering committment to Israel’s security which he has called “sacrosanct.”
He is a Christian and a friend of the Jews, as his legion of passionate Jewish supporters will attest. What are these accusation about him being a Muslim trying to accomplish?
Mark Goodman
Gossip and rumor is part and parcel of our human fabric. It all may have started with our Neanderthal ancestors. Unfortunately, it will not get any better as we become more enamored with taunting the truth. Telling lies will inevitably become more palatable as we, via technology, anonymously venture deep into the long and dark corridors of our societal psyche. Sadly, as a moral and enlightened people we may have faltered as standard bearers of truth, justice and compassion. Though it has been our most pressing social responsibility.
I am the women’s studies librarian at the University of Wisconsin, and I applaud your attempt to get people to check before forwarding mass emails. I received the U.K./University of Kentucky one just this week, and I did what I always do, which is to check http://www.snopes.com. I easily verified that this has been circulating for years, and that it has the single school in the UK grain of truth amidst a much larger falsehood. I sent a reply to the person who had sent it to me, urging her to let all the other people to whom she had sent it know not to forward the message. (I prefer not to blast other people’s distribution lists and embarrass my friendly forwarder. I let her/him word their message as they wish.) It is important to let people know where they can check — besides snopes there’s http://urbanlegends.about.com/. The only statement I would take issue with is that Jews are especially prone to receive and forward such messages. It just depends on who you are, what you receive. I, for example, also get a lot of them concerning women, particularly health scares.
Great article - but it might be helpful to post some information about how people can help to defuse these internet myths more quickly. One site that is very useful is Urban Legends (snopes dot com); I often send out a “reply all” e-mail blast with a link to the site so that people can get the correct information (and hopefully send it back up the e-mail chain).
David,
This was a useful email and reading it I kept waiting for the part where you would tell your readers where to go on the web to either validate or invalidate what they read before sending it on, but it never came. http://www.snopes.com/snopes.asp
I always check it out at snopes.com, the urban legend buster. In fact, I also was anticipating learning that a new site was coming out that would bust specifically Jewish urban legends.I was a little disappointed that this was not to be.
I hope your readers are reading this and will use snopes.com to check out Jewish and not-Jewish urban legends. It’s a site that we all should bookmark and use.
http://www.snopes.com/snopes.asp
Spreading internet rumors surely falls within the category of behavior forbidden by Jewish law as lashon hara (evil talk, such as gossip).
Thank you for this incisive analysis. I am shocked to realize that I have encountered many of the e-mail hoaxes explicitly mentioned above–from the maliciously false ones about Obama to the rumors about the United Kingdom ceasing to teach about the Holocaust. In recalling HOW I came to receive them, I recognized that Jewish e-mail correspondents, including some that consider themselves righteous and upright members of their community, in particular, right-wing Jewish acquaintances, have spread them. Truly an example of lashon hara!
In the famous words of Mark Twain:
“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”
I always check anything doubtful with the Snopes.com website as well, and there are other sites that rebut a lot of other urban legends, paranormal “woo-woo” beliefs and other misconceptions.
Some of the more useful sites are:
Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy , Committee for Skeptical Inquiry , Seawana.com .
I recommend them and others because people who will fall for one kind of nonsense will usually fall for numerous other kinds.
Remember that the only lasting cure for bad ideas and false beliefs consists of better ideas and truth.
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