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Break The Chain |
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Break the chain of
false information.
(5/22/2003) The Internet is a great big open forum in which virtually anyone can express his opinions with as much anonymity as he wants. Unfortunately, when we read something we really like, we don't want the author to be anonymous. In fact, it's best if we can believe somebody famous was actually responsible for it. Thus we get cases of false attribution like this one... Chain letters that express opinions that we are too afraid or to ashamed to represent as our own are very popular on the Internet - A phenomenon I like to call "Rent-An-Opinion." But, opinions are always more interesting if we know whose it is. Make that person a celebrity, and you've got a popular and long-lasting chain. The above rant
was not written by the America's favorite curmudgeonly commentator and
has never been featured on "60 Minutes." The text is a liberally edited
version of a popular rant that has been incorrectly attributed to
George Carlin,
Ted Nugent, Dennis Leary and Rush Limbaugh, to name
a few. Rooney is just the latest celebrity to fall victim to the "well,
he ought to have said it" mindset of e-mail chain letter forwarders. A
quick check of Rooney's archive on CBS proves that he never said it on
the air. Actually, the
rant above originated in in a FreeRepublic forum in 2000. It was titled
"I am a Bad Republican" and was posted by an author known only as "Bootyist
Monk," who takes full responsibility for it. Very soon thereafter, in the
wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, it was changed slightly,
retittled "I Am A Bad American," attributed to Carlin or Nugent and made
a very popular chain letter. Attributing things like this to people who seem likely to have said them serves two purposes: First, it elevates the rant from one-person's anonymous opinion to fact-by-proxy. Second, it separates us from the comments, giving a nice buffer zone to protect one from being blamed/credited for them, should our friends and family members not share the views. The BreakTheChain organization recommends against forwarding the work of another person (whether it be correctly or falsely attributed). E-mail is not a reliable format and every recipient is free to alter the message anyway he sees fit. Even when the source is known and verifiable, there is often no way to know if the text is unchanged from its original or that it was intended for broad distribution. Break this chain.
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