The Obama Haters: Behind the Right-Wing Campaign of Lies, Innuendo & Racism

APPENDIX C: Where to Go for Help: It’s Easy to Think for Yourself

197 aPPendIX C Where to Go for Help: It’s Easy to Think for Yourself Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. —Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) attacks on Obama contributed to a whole new perspective on how the Internet is a curse as well as a blessing. It can provide instant access to useful information about prenatal care, recipes, or news from anywhere in any language; play music; offer ways to buy anything we want; and even schedule a flight or cruise to anywhere in the world. But the downside is that it gives equal access to every conceivable kook, liar, and swindler. It is often difficult to distinguish the veracity of information on the Internet . Some good websites offer help: ABYZ News Links (abyznewslinks.com): A complete listing of newspapers and news websites around the world. American Journalism Review (ajr.org): The online site for the American Journalism Review deals with tough issues such as the “Chinese Wall” between news and advertising at media organizations. The Campaign Finance Institute (cfinst.org): Analyzes Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service reports to track which organizations fund political campaigns. 198 — — — — — — tHe oBama HateRs Columbia Journalism Review (cjr.org): The Columbia Journalism Review’s online site examines coverage of important news events for bias and accuracy. FactCheck.org: Investigates claims by politicians and rates their veracity; it points out falsehoods and myths irrespective of political party or ideology. FAIR (fair.org): The motto for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting is “challenging media bias and censorship since 1986.” It boasts renowned contributors such as pollster Peter Hart. Journalism.org: This site is run by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. It examines media bias and issues fascinating data about news content. Media Matters for America (mediamatters.org): This site archives the worst misstatements made every day by politicians and media organizations, with links to audio and video when available. It was founded by former conservative hatchet man David Brock, who wrote Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative and The Republican Noise Machine: RightWing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy. Muckety (muckety.com): Shows connections between people and organizations . If you look up the Obama haters, you will see lots of links between them and other shadowy groups. NewsLink (newslink.org): A handy way to find websites for newspapers and broadcasters anywhere in the world. NewsTrust (newstrust.net): Critiques the websites that critique the media. The Nieman Journalism Lab (niemanlab.org): This is a project of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, which describes itself as “a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age.” aPPendix c: WHeRe to go foR HeLP — — — — — — 199 Obama Conspiracy Theories (obamaconspiracy.org): A folksy, independent website is devoted to investigating the many conspiracy theories against Obama. National Public Radio (npr.org): National Public Radio’s Secret Money Project lists roles played by people in numerous organizations. OpenSecrets.org: The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics exposes spending by organizations and affiliated groups to influence elections. PolitiFact.com: Created by the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. It has a Truth-OMeter , “a scorecard separating fact from fiction,” and an Obamameter to check the status of the president’s campaign promises. Political Research Associates (publiceye.org): Meticulously documents activities by extremist groups. It said one group pulled “their conspiracy theories into the mainstream media and Congress.” SourceWatch (sourcewatch.org): A project of the Center for Media and Democracy , SourceWatch is a media critic that is also a Wikipedia-type reference about news sources. Snopes.com: This website is devoted to debunking urban legends. For instance , a search for “Obama birth certificate” links to his Hawaiian certificate of live birth, a copy of his birth announcement from Honolulu newspapers a few days after he was born, and a summary of the smears and frivolous lawsuits. It cites its sources from legitimate news organizations , such as the Philadelphia Daily News, Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the New York Times and The Economist. TruthOrFiction.com: This website looks into rumors that have appeared on the Internet and judges their veracity. Tyndall Report (tyndallreport.com): Monitors broadcasts of the nightly network news. Andrew Tyndall claims to have not missed a single one since...