Breaking Bilge – Satire Strikes Again
Apr 02 2009
A new viral email quotes President Obama saying ridiculous things. Without the mention that the original source was satire…
BotB Verdict
Average Number of Times Received Daily at MOAA: Just Started
Bilge Alert Summary
An email began circulating today (or possibly earlier, the example cited below may not be the first one) that was taken from a satire portion of a conservative website. The email includes quotes from the satirical article attributed to President Obama that were complete fabrications. The email being circulated in veteran circles makes no mention of the fact that the article was written by a satire columnist.
The Email Received
OBAMA IS SURPRISED VETS DON’T WANT TO PAY THEIR OWN MEDICAL
Sent: Thursday, April 02, 2009 11:26 AM
Subject: OBAMA IS SURPRISED VETS DON’T WANT TO PAY THEIR OWN MEDICAL
This is a very revealing look into the depth of BO’s ignorance. Read his comments below and ponder them with mouths agape, and head shaking side to side while muttering under your breath, “He’s the leader of the free world – and we elected him!!”
Another Par for the Course.
You know, one of these days this man is going to be howling right along side the demons in the deepest holes in Hell!!!
HERE IS HIS RESPONSE WHEN HE BACKED OFF FROM HIS DECISION TO LET THE MILITARY PAY FOR THEIR WAR INJURIES……..WHAT A EMPTY HEADED PERSON HE MUST BE….SEND THIS TO EVERYONE TO SHOW JUST WHAT HE THINKS OF OUR MILITARY WHO FIGHT FOR OUR COUNTRY AND GET HURT PROTECTING OUR FREEDOM!!! I HAVE ANOTHER NAME FOR THIS CREATURE BUT AM TRYING TO STOP USING THAT WORD FOR HIM….IT IS NOT NICE……
Bad press, including major mockery of the plan by comedian Jon Stewart, led to President Obama abandoning his proposal to require veterans’ private health insurance to cover the estimated $540 million annual cost to the federal government of treatment for injuries to military personnel received during their tours on active duty.
The President admitted that he was puzzled by the magnitude of the opposition to his proposal. “Look, it’s an all volunteer force,” Obama complained. “Nobody made these guys go to war. They had to have known and accepted the risks. Now they whine about bearing the costs of their choice? It doesn’t compute.”
“I thought these were people who were proud to sacrifice for their country,” Obama continued. “I wasn’t asking for blood—just money. With the country facing the worst financial crisis in its history, I’d have thought that the patriotic thing to do would be to try to help reduce the nation’s deficit. I guess I underestimated the selfishness of some of my fellow Americans.”
Origins
The email itself is brand new (especially the lead in commentary) and hasn’t been indexed on the web yet (no Google search results).
The text in the last three paragraphs are directly from a 28 March blog post from John Semmons, whose column Semi-News — A Satirical Look at Recent News appears in the Arizona Conservative, a web community of bloggers. The quotes in question were made up, of course, and the writing is nothing but satire. Here is the direct link (the first item in his column).
The story actually first appeared on Free Republic on 22 March, posted by John Semmons with a clear label of satire.
The text preceding the satire and strong rant against the President is what appears to be recent and is from an unknown source at this time.
Commentary and Motivations
The earlier the better – This email was sent to a member of the MOAA staff today because the member in question couldn’t believe the quotes. If the April 2nd source of the email holds up, we can expect saturation similar to the Military Oath email, another example of satire turned ‘fact’.
People will use anything to inject their agendas – Assuming the author of the email was honestly not aware of its satirical root, the agenda here was spreading as much anti-Obama rhetoric as possible. If they were aware that it was satire but chose not to make that clear, the agenda is even more apparent. Unfortunately we do not know who turned the blog post from the Arizona Conservative into a quickly spreading email.
Fabricated or exaggerated stories about President Obama are on the rise – The number of emails, along with the increase in intensity and scorn, are reaching a pace not seen since the height of the 2008 Presidential election. While most of the criticism of the president in previous emails tended to be more reasonable and policy based, the last few weeks have seen the reasoned debate or questioning of loyalty turn ugly.
Consider the following quote from the add on section of the email: “You know, one of these days this man is going to be howling right along side the demons in the deepest holes in Hell!!!”. Message boards play a huge role in the spreading of innuendo, rumors and fabrications, but in this particular case most message boards were on target with their categorizing the quotes from President Obama as satire.
Spotting of the Bilge – Besides the obvious first step anyone should take (copy the last paragraph of the cited information and paste it into a Google search), the writing is dripping with satire. Logic would tell you that the Commander in Chief would be very unlikely to speak of the military in such a manner, especially not with so many groups watching and analyzing every move or comment he makes.
Alert Conclusion
Please send anyone receiving this email a link to this page or to the sources provided below and ask them to read it before passing the email on to others. While it is odd that this story sat on a blog for a week before making it to the email rounds, the web really only needs one person misinterpreting a story, innocently or nefariously, and the story spreads quickly.
References, Further Reading
John Summons’ Published Satire
Free Republic Post by John Summons
Thanks for putting this on the Net. I received one of these email this morning, forwarded to me by a “conservative” friend. It’s hard to believe that anyone would take this seriously. But then, possibly they didn’t. It’s no wonder we have such deep idealogical divisions in this country.
Thank you for the comment, this one was spreading fast so we moved it to the top of the schedule to try and stop the spread quickly.
Wait, someone actually read this and believed it? I’m sad for our community that if this is what is coming out of peoples minds. The division between the far right wing Glenn Beck followers and the rest of the nation that contain a sense of rationality is growing quickly. I fear that something like this email will push people over the edge and it will start getting ugly.
This is a situation that leads to no good regardless of who might be correct.
Today is Easter. Anyone remember?
Good catch. When I read it, I was surprised by how openly stupid the remarks were, so, no surprise that it was not authentic. I am not an Obama supporter, but I do think that spreading stuff like this does no one any good. While your fact checking does prove the body of the email is a fake, the fact that the Obama administration did bring up the idea of having personal insurance pay for medical needs for military personnel seems to be missing from any portion of your setting the record straight. While the sarcastic remarks shown in the email are fraud, the basis for the outrage is very real.
Absolutely, and there is just one of the reasons rumors catch on. There is always some degree of fact in the really popular ones. We showcased the VA medical bill issue earlier on BotB, you might want to check it out here. I think Obama is smart enough that he’ll look to avoid situations like that in the future, knowing how many eyes are on him over military issues (like the 375,000 plus set of eyes just in MOAA).
I am a conserative and I totally disapprove of President Obama’s running of this country. But, this letter is obviously pretty far fetched and exagerater. Give conseratives a break folks, they’re not all stupid and gullable as some of these post intentionally suggest, which make them as damaging as this letter about President Obama going around. By the way, I deleted the letter and searched the net for the facts. That’s how I ended up here.
I did not receive the original email, but am not surprised by the fact that extremists seem to be coming out of the woodwork. I also am not an Obama supporter, but find myself in the minority in my family. In my opinion, history will show that Mr. Obama was the worst thing that ever happened to our beloved country.
His real agenda is even worse than the blog; by the time he and his fellow party members finish totally rearranging the societal framework, turn the country over to the union bosses, and denigrate and marginalize business at all levels, we will be longing for the pecadillos of Bill Cllinton.
As Roger pointed out I too searched for the FACTS on this (google, snopes & factcheck) and ended up here. To some degree this looks like Tomato Tomatoe Potato Potatoe.
The email claimed the Obamanation wanted Service members’ private insurance carriers to pay for war related injuries. The White.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor told us that “these quotes are fabricated.” and went on to say. the Obama administration met with several veterans groups on March 16 and floated the idea of saving taxpayers $540 million by billing veterans’ private insurance companies for treatment of conditions connected to their military service, including war injuries.
Sounds to me that they “Floated” the idea which would indicate their thought process and once it met with significant resistance back pedaled.
Kinda like, robbing a bank and then when confronted by police saying it was just an innocent little prank gone wrong.
I don’t really care about the outrageous quotes; what worries me is that he actually by admittance of White House spokesman Tommy Vietor “FLOATED” the idea in the first place. I’ve served for 26 years as a volunteer, my family and I sacrificed a lot, and my Commander in Chief things I should have my BlueCross cover any injuries I sustain while Piloting a Helo in the Mid-East?
If you’re part of the small percentage of Americans actually paying any significant taxes as I do (being part of the working “Obama” rich ruining this country) you should be upset for several reasons. First, if you’re paying taxes so that much of the nation can have FREE healthcare, you’re probably paying for your own health insurance … which would go up significantly to cover all the expenses of caring for WAR related injuries of Veterans. It’s again a way to have the responsible few who are motivated, ambitious and industrious pay for the meek and lazy suckling on the teat of the American Government.
Potato Potatoe, I don’t care how you spell it or spin it. The Fact the administration even “FLOATED” the idea is so wrong that I can’t describe it with words. The FACT that the American public can’t see beyond the fabricated QUOTES to realize that this is very disturbing regardless of what was actually said is extremely sad and an awful commentary on us as a Nation.