Since the Evidence Soup slogan is "Open up a big ol' can of evidence," I'm always interested in people who do just that -- especially when it's risky. Here in the U.S., the Barack Obama presidential campaign is doing something different: Instead of attempting to ignore harmful online rumors, they are identifying misinformation explicitly and, when possible, presenting evidence to the contrary (of course, this is a political campaign, so they're not calling it "evidence" -- it's "the truth"). They call their initiative Fight the Smears. Here's an example:
Public relations folks have had to make significant changes to adapt to social media and the web (even the lowly press release must evolve, as explained on PR 2.0 here). I'm not a public relations professional, and I certainly don't know how to run a political campaign, so I don't know what body of evidence they've traditionally relied on to support the idea that rumors should be ignored, not acknowledged. But the game has changed -- and given the transparency that the web makes possible, I think Obama is right to challenge rumors head on. At least some experts believe he's doing the right thing, since evidence and misinformation now travel much more quickly than in previous presidential campaigns. I especially like how the Fight the Smears page uses social media to make it easy for believers to help "spread the truth".
Senator Obama is NOT a Dirty Muslim!
"What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge," says Mr. Obama, while denouncing statements of him being a Muslim as a smear. Why is the presidential candidate who claims to be religiously inclusive is treating the word "Muslim" as an insult? Apparently, it is OK for Mr. Obama to be associated with terrorists like William Ayers or racists like Jeremiah Wright, but God forbid somebody would call him a Muslim! No, he won't stand for that kind of smear! We admit that most terrorists are Muslims, but most Muslims are not terrorists and the statement on Mr. Obama's website is insulting to hundreds of millions of people.
How could a man who discards his family heritage in favor of political expediency be even considered for presidency of the United States? Where are all the so-called "Islamic civil rights groups" like CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, MAS, etc. who are quick to defend every Islamic terrorist, but are silent when Muslims in general are being denigrated? Would Mr. Obama have the same reaction if someone claimed that he was raised as a Jew? We sincerely doubt that.
Muslims Against Sharia demand immediate removal of "SMEAR: Barack Obama is a Muslim" statement from the official Barack Obama's website as well as an apology for giving the word "Muslim" a negative connotation.
http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2008/06/senator-obama-is-not-dirty-muslim.html
Posted by: Muslims Against Sharia | Friday, 20 June 2008 at 09:36 PM