Beckie Deiter – 10/16/08

This page was last updated on October 19, 2008.

Check out e-mail before forwarding; Beckie Deiter; Beaver County Times; October 16, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“With the 2008 presidential election less than a month away, I have never felt the need to write a letter to the editor.

“However, I have to comment about the barrage of forwarded political e-mails I have been receiving.

“All of these emails have been negative untrue attacks about Barack Obama. All of them could have been confirmed as untrue before they were sent or forwarded. In most cases, I have responded with a ‘Reply to All’ and a Snopes e-mail link refuting the message, but frankly, I have more important things to do with my time.”

[RWC] Is it just me, or is it a bit suspicious an apparent Obama supporter would get only anti-Obama “political e-mails?” In the discussion thread for this letter on the Times website, serial faux fact provider William G. Horter claimed he “got three of these Barack is a terrorist nd [sic] worse emails today, I have given up telling the person who mails this crap it’s wrong. She knows it, but that doesn’t stop the repubs.”

“Friday’s editorial (‘Fact check’) was on this subject. For those of you who are so quick to push a ‘send’ or ‘forward’ button on your e-mail without checking the truth of the content, I suggest you read this editorial. Regardless of party affiliation or preference on a candidate, you have the ability and responsibility to check the content of communications before you send them along.

“To continue the proliferation of these negative untrue attacks only serves to railroad the facts and the person. You don’t have the right to ‘inform’ me of your politics so that I can disrespect your position.”

[RWC] I believe I’ve written this before, but I must be very lucky if letters like this one are to be believed. To date, I haven’t received any of these alleged e-mail notes – not one – regardless of whom they attack. I get lots of other e-mail, just none of the alleged political attack notes.