Summary: This is a forensic analysis of an of propaganda. The story was obviously false, yet blasted around the Internet — aided by endorsements by some major conservative website — and others repeating the story. It provides another warning of how the Internet can make us stupid. We’ll need to do much better if America is to survive, let alone prosper, in the 21st century. A first step is for people to hold accountable those from whom they get information. After all, conservatives are the target for conservative propaganda — and vice versa. So long as we enjoy being lied to, people will lie to us. Don’t let them get away with it; hold the websites your peers to high standards. We’ll all be better off, and the nation become stronger. This is another in a series highlighting the lies that increasingly shape American beliefs; other posts appear at the end.
This is a simple story. A wingnut posts an absurd story. Others spread it. Some important websites endorses it. Unusually, it has a happy ending. The Washington Post ran a definitive rebuttal, and the original website ran a weak retraction. Key aspects of this story providing lessons to us all:
- This story never should have ran so widely; it was obviously false.
- Michelle Obama probably will never get an apology.
- The readers of the sites passing on this story also deserve apologies; don’t hold you breath.
- Most of these bloggers will ignore their endorsement of obviously false defamatory rumors — or hide behind the “we’re just little bloggers in our pj’s” defense.
- The first is despicable, the second no longer true of bloggers — in aggregate.
- With power comes responsibility. When this becomes second nature to Americans, we’ll be a stronger nation.
Step one: the story ignites
“Photo Evidence: Michelle Obama Keeps Socialist Books In The White House Library“, Rob Port (host of Dakota Talk Radio), Say Anything Blog, 17 February 2010 — Technorati lists this as one of the top 100 political blogs. Excerpt:
I arrived in Washington DC today to cover CPAC and since I was in town, and since CPAC doesn’t really get rolling until tomorrow, I tagged along with some Scott Hennen Show listeners on an extensive tour of the White House as part of the Common Sense Travel Club. One of the stops on the tour (which was wonderful by the way) was the White House library.
Now, according out the person who guided our tour, the library is stock with books picked out by the First Lady, Michelle Obama. Being a bit of a bibliophile, I started to peruse some of the books on the shelves…and lookie, lookie what I found (click for a larger view) {photo}
By itself, this wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But in the context of Anita Dunn saying Chairman Mao is her favorite political philosopher? In the context of the Mao ornament on the White House Christmas tree? In the context of Obama’s economic policies? Well, I’ll let you make your own call.
There were 8 books identifiable in the photo. All obviously old, mostly academic in nature. Filed together among the thousands of books by a common subject (it’s a library). Most written before Michelle Obama was born in 1964. With subjects unlikely to interest a modern socialist or Maoist. Only an ideologue or fool would attribute these to Michelle Obama without stronger evidence.
- Two volumes of Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties by Moisei Ostrogorski (1922)
- US Senators and Their World by Donald R. Matthews (1960)
- The Populist moment: a short history of the agrarian revolt in America by Lawrence Goodwyn (1976)
- The Populist Revolt by John D. Hicks (1931) — “A History of the Farmers’ Alliance and the People’s Party.”
- The Socialist Party of America by David A. Shannon (1953) — Identification uncertain as I cannot read the author’s name. “An anatomical dissection, covers the rise and decline of a once popular party.” Shannon is a historian (see his books here).
- The American Socialist Movement 1897-1912 by Ira Kipnis, Columbia University Press (1952)
- The Social Basis of American Communism by Nathan Glazer (1961) — Part of a series funded by the Fund for the Republic, a think-tank started by the Ford Foundation in 1952 “to defend and advance the principles of the Declaration of the Independence and the Constitution>
- The Invention of the American Political Parties, by Roy Franklin Nichols (1972)
Step Two: endorsement by other websites
These people are not fools, and probably knew exactly what they were doing. No apologies yet (that I see) to either their readers or Michelle Obama. To cite just two…
- “Figures. Michelle Obama Stocked White House Library with Books on Socialism“, Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit, 17 February 2010
- “Michelle, Barack’s Fellow Ideologue“, Backyard Conservative, 18 February 2010
Step Three: rebuttal
“Socialist books in the White House library? A blog provides photo evidence but only part of the story“, Stephen Lowman, blog of the Washington Post, 18 February 2010
Rob Port ran this update on this post:
According to the Washington Post it was First Lady Jackie Kennedy who oversaw the placing of the books in the White House library, and they’ve been there since 1963. Apparently no administration since has changed the contents of the library. So the guide I was with didn’t give me the whole story. Either that, or we misunderstood one another. The Chairman Mao Christmas ornament, the Obama adviser who idolizes Mao and the nationalizations of the banks, car companies and attempted nationalizations of student loans and health care are all, unfortunately, still very true.
For more information from the FM site
To read other articles about these things, see the FM reference page on the right side menu bar. Including About the FM website page. Of esp relevance to this topic:
About propaganda and info warfare:
- Successful info ops, but who are the targets?, 1 May 2008
- The most expensive psy-war campaign – ever!, 13 July 2008
- Psywar, a core skill of the US Military (used most often on us), 26 November 2008
- Iran’s getting the bomb, or so we’re told. Can they fool us twice?, 16 February 2009
- How the Soviet Menace was over-hyped – and what we can learn from this, 13 October 2009
- More attempts to control the climate science debate using smears and swarming, 19 October 2009
- About Wikipedia’s handling of controversial topics…like climate science, 20 December 2009
- Think-tanks bribe journalists to promote our wars, 24 December 2009
- Iran will have the bomb in 5 years (again), 20 January 2010
- Successful propaganda as a characteristic of 21st century America, 1 February 2010
- More propaganda: the eco-fable of Easter Island, 4 February 2010
- The hidden history of the global warming crusade, 19 February 2010
About disinformation:
- Cable Cut Fever grips the conspiracy-hungry fringes of the web , 7 February 2008
- Resolution of the Great Submarine Cable Crisis – and some lessons learned , 8 February 2008
- Does reading Debkafile make us smarter, or dumber?, 15 June 2008
- More rumors of war: our naval armada has sailed to Iran!, 9 August 2008
- Update on the rumored armada sailing to Iran, 13 August 2008
- Stop the presses: no naval armada has sailed to blockade Iran!, 20 August 2008
- Proposed legislation prepares the way for war with Iran!, 25 August 2008
- The media doing what it does best these days, feeding us disinformation, 18 February 2009
Afterword
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