Their problem is that they are frustrated that reality itself has a
left-wing "bias," and doesn't necessarily always align with the
right-wing insistence that their dogma, lies and delusions trump mere
facts and objective reality. Consequently, they will not only attack
and deny the truth, they will attack and deny anyone who stubbornly
insists on sticking to the truth. Sites like Snopes and FactCheck
frequently infuriate them for doing so.
-----
Ask FactCheck
Q: Is Snopes.com run by "very Democratic" proprietors? Did they lie to
discredit a State Farm insurance agent who attacked Obama?
A: A chain e-mail that "exposed" Snopes contains falsehoods. And in
fact, the site is run by someone who has no political party affiliation
and his non-voting Canadian wife. A State Farm spokeswoman confirms what
they reported about the Obama-baiting agent.
FULL QUESTION
Can you verify?
Chain e-mail: "Snopes" Exposed
Posted on February 26, 2009 at 2:29am
⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full text ⬏
FULL ANSWER
This widely circulated e-mail contains a number of false claims about
the urban legend-busting Snopes.com and its proprietors, Barbara and
David Mikkelson, who started the site in 1995 and still run it. They’re
accused of hiding their identities, doing shoddy research, producing
articles with a liberal bent and discrediting an anti-Obama State Farm
agent out of partisanship.
The Trouble with Bud
We’ll deal first with the most specific allegation, which is that the
Mikkelsons fabricated an account about State Farm agent Bud Gregg.
At issue is a sign Gregg posted last summer outside his office in
Mandeville, La. It said, "A taxpayer voting for Barack Obama is like a
chicken voting for Colonel Sanders." Snopes.com wrote it up in an
article headlined "Chicken Hawked." The e-mail writer says that "they
claimed the corporate office of State Farm pressured Gregg into taking
down the sign, when in fact nothing of the sort ‘ever’ took place." But
that’s exactly what did happen, according a company representative.
In her article, Barbara Mikkelson didn’t actually use the word
"pressured" as the e-mail claims. What she said was:
Snopes.com: A State Farm representative said that Bud Gregg’s office
sign bore these messages until 3 July 2008 and that the company had
requested the sign be removed as soon as they became aware of it because
the sign was inconsistent with State Farm’s policy of not endorsing
candidates or taking sides in political campaigns.
And State Farm spokeswoman Molly Quirk-Kirby confirmed in a letter to us
the same thing she had told Snopes.com earlier:
State Farm: Management requested the sign be removed as soon as its
presence became known. It was taken down on July 3, 2008. Mr. Gregg’s
sign was not endorsed by, nor consistent with State Farm’s corporate
practices. The company does not endorse candidates, nor take sides in
political campaigns.
The e-mail’s author says the Mikkelsons didn’t call Gregg, and David
says that’s true. He says he sent the insurance agent an e-mail, but did
not receive a response.
Politically Preferential?
The e-mail goes on: "Then it has been learned the Mikkelson’s are very
Democratic (party) and extremely liberal," adding: "There has been much
criticism lately over the internet with people pointing out the
Mikkelson’s liberalism revealing itself in their website findings." The
author cites no evidence and no sources for either of these propositions.
We asked David. He told us that Barbara is a Canadian citizen, and as
such isn’t allowed to vote here or contribute money to U.S. candidates.
As for him, "My sole involvement in politics is on Election Day to go
out and vote. I’ve never joined a party, worked for a campaign or
donated money to a candidate."
"You’d be hard-pressed to find two more apolitical people," David
Mikkelson said. We checked online to see if he had given money to any
federal candidates, and nothing turned up. Mikkelson even faxed us a
copy of his voter registration form. He asked us not to post an image of
it here, but we can confirm that it shows he declined to state a party
affiliation when he registered last year, and also that when he
registered in 2000 he did so as a Republican.
Do the Snopes.com articles reveal a political bias? We reviewed a
sampling of their political offerings, including some on rumors about
George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama, and we found them to be
utterly poker-faced. David does say that the site receives more
complaints that it is too liberal than that it is too conservative.
Nevertheless, he says, "We apply the same debunking standards to both
sides."
Hiding in Plain Sight
The e-mail also accuses the Mikkelsons of "hiding" their identities.
"Only recently did Wikipedia get to the bottom of it," the message
claims. That’s nonsense. It may well be that the author of this e-mail
was ignorant of the Mikkelsons until recently, but it’s never been a
secret who is behind Snopes.com.
We even dug up a reference to David Mikkelson from 1995, a year when the
Internet was in its infancy. A collection of short items under the
headline "A Special Report: The Virtual Valley" in the Los Angeles
Times included a photo of him. Reporter David Brady wrote: "Meet David
Mikkelson, above. Known in cyberspace as "snopes," the Agoura Hills
resident spends much of his time debunking urban legends via the Usenet
newsgroup alt.folklore.urban." The Mikkelsons were hardly holed up in an
undisclosed location, even then.
David says the couple has done "hundreds" of media interviews over the
years. Some of the major national pieces are listed on the site,
including a new (April 2009) Reader’s Digest feature on them.
Lift That Bale!
Another claim in the e-mail: That the Mikkelsons have been criticized
for "not really investigating and getting to the bottom of various
issues." The message gives no examples, but there’s plenty of evidence
that the couple expends a great deal of effort to find the truth. Take,
for example, "Easily Lead," Barbara Mikkelson’s attempt to ascertain
whether lipstick contains dangerous levels of lead, as one chain e-mail
claimed. Mikkelson had an extensive conversation with a federal Food and
Drug Administration compliance officer, conducted her own experiments
rubbing various metals across lipstick and wax smears on white paper,
dug up a number of articles about and industry memos on lead in
lipstick, and sifted through medical literature on the topic. The list
of sources at the end of the article doesn’t come close to doing justice
to the amount of work that went into it. (Bottom line: Lipstick is safe,
at least in the U.S.).
For another piece, "Chubby Bunny Death," the Mikkelsons verified that a
child had indeed died while playing a game that entails stuffing as many
marshmallows as possible into one’s mouth and trying to say the words
"chubby bunny." However, they dispelled the notion that the death
occurred because the marshmallows had "emulsified," forming a sticky
liquid that choked the child and was difficult to extract in time to
save her. Instead, it was a case of marshmallows blocking her air
passages. The Mikkelsons knew that because they reviewed a number of
articles about a lawsuit that resulted from the incident. But they also
conducted their own experiment, David Mikkelson told us in an interview,
in which he held marshmallows in his mouth to determine how long it
takes them to dissolve. Now that’s research.
And no account of the lengths to which the Mikkelsons will go to chase
down the facts would be complete without a mention of "Crash Course,"
their shredding of the rumor (repeated in Time magazine and elsewhere)
that Clark Gable had run over and killed a pedestrian while driving
drunk one night in 1945, and that his studio, MGM, paid an employee to
take the rap for him. The Mikkelsons checked four biographies and other
books, which had conflicting accounts, and a number of old newspaper
articles (all on microfilm) to sort out the truth, which was that Gable
did have a car wreck, but he never hit a pedestrian. Their account of
the extensive research process is worth a read.
Although our sites have somewhat different emphases – we focus on what’s
being said in political ads, speeches, interviews and debates, while
Snopes.com concentrates more on such things as whether former Monkee
band member Michael Nesmith’s mother was the inventor of liquid
correction fluid (she was) – Snopes.com does take on some claims in the
political realm. That has given us an opportunity to evaluate the
Mikkelson’s work from time to time. We have found it solid and
well-documented. We even link to Snopes.com when it’s appropriate rather
than reinvent the wheel ourselves, which we consider high praise.
A Final Warning
The e-mail’s last paragraph advises that everyone who goes to Snopes.com
for "the bottom line facts" should "proceed with caution." We think
that’s terrific advice, not just in connection with material on Snopes
but for practically anything a reader finds online — including articles
on FactCheck.org. The very reason we list our sources (as does
Snopes.com) and provide links is so that readers can check things out
for themselves.
Oh, we almost forgot: That Wikipedia entry mentioned in the e-mail? Not
only was it not the first place to reveal the Mikkelsons’ identities,
but it contains several factual errors, according to David. For
instance, it says that he works "part-time" on Snopes.com. That was
never true, according to David; early on he did hold another job as
well, but even that hasn’t been true since 2002. The mistakes could have
been avoided if the authors had contacted the couple. "None of them
did," he said.
–Viveca Novak
Sources
Brady, David E. "Valley Newswatch/A Special Report: The Virtual Valley,"
Los Angeles Times, 5 June 1995.
Interview with David Mikkelson, 8 April 2009.
Hochman, David. "Rumor Detectives: True Story or Online Hoax?" Reader’s
Digest, April 2009.
Mikkelson, Barbara. "Chubby Bunny Death," Snopes.com, 15 Sept. 2006.
"Crash Course," Snopes.com, 9 Aug. 2007
Mikkelson, Barbara. "Easily Lead," Snopes.com, 12 Nov. 2008.
"Liquid Paperback Writer," Snopes.com, 26 April 2007.
Mikkelson, Barbara. "Chicken Hawked," Snopes.com, 23 Oct. 2008.
Selected pages on George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama,
Snopes.com, various dates.
POSTED BY VIVECA NOVAK ON FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2009 AT 1:55 PM FILED UNDER
ASK FACTCHECK. TAGGED WITH CHAIN E-MAIL, SNOPES, STATE FARM
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/snopescom/