July 16, 2008

The Dowd "Obama Gets Most Money from Foreigners" Hoax

There's an e-mail going around purporting to be a column by Maureen Dowd which claims that most of Obama's online fundraising can be traced to either Saudi or Chinese donors. Some bloggers have posted the e-mail with attribution to Dowd.

The problem? Dowd never wrote such a column:

Dowd herself found the email an exercise in absurdity, not to mention -- quite possibly -- the first time she's been indirectly involved in a smear campaign.

"The line about it being the 'most shocking revelation,' I don't think I've ever said those words, except in a satire. Also, it is about money, which I never write about," she told the Huffington Post. "Sometime you try and protest things you hear about, but sometimes it's just not worth it... It is hard to track down and control these things, and anyone who reads my column knows that this wasn't me. I got to the second line and I knew it wasn't me."

I get e-mails like this all the time, and mostly just dismiss them. You should too.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 04:40 PM | |