Fwd: Snopes and Factcheck

Thanks Foy for sending us this shocking follow-up forward to this entry in reference to this gem. This guy sounds like he's done his homework, any bets on his accuracy?


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I have suggested this very idea over the last several months. Now, we need to find another source to check our facts against other than these sites. Perhaps the old fashioned going back to the source idea is the best idea. After all historians know better than to believe a website their research.

Factcheck.org is also run by a liberal Obama supporter, so that's why both of these "experts" go all around their elbow to deny the "rumors" that have been spreading about Obama. So much for checking snopes from now on!

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> GUESS WE SHOULD BE CAREFUL TO TRUST ANY MAN'S "TRUTH".

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> For the past few years www.snopes.com has positioned itself, or others have labeled it, as the 'tell all final word' on >>any comment, claim and email.

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> But for several years people tried to find out who exactly was behind snopes.com. Only recently did Wikipedia get to the bottom of it. Well, finally we know. It is run by a husband and wife team - that's right, no big office of investigators and researchers, no team of lawyers. It's just a mom-and-pop operation that began as a hobby.

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> David and Barbara Mikkelson in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles , California started the website about 13 years ago - and they have no formal background or experience in investigative research. After a few years it gained popularity believing it to be unbiased and neutral, but over the past couple of years people started asking questions who was behind it and did they have a selfish motivation? The reason for the questions or skepticisms is a result of snopes.com claiming to have the bottom line facts to certain questions or issue when in fact they have been proven wrong. Also, there were criticisms the Mikkelsons were not really investigating and getting to the 'true' bottom of various issues. I can personally vouch for that complaint.

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> A few months ago, when my State Farm agent Bud Gregg in Mandeville hoisted a political sign referencing Barack Obama and made a big splash across the internet, 'supposedly' the Mikkelson's claim to have researched this issue before posting their findings on snopes.com. In their statement 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.

> I personally contacted David Mikkelson (and he replied back to me) thinking he would want to get to the bottom of this and I gave him Bud Gregg's contact phone numbers - and Bud was going to give him phone numbers to the big exec's at State Farm in Illinois who would have been willing to speak with him about it. He never called Bud. In fact, I learned from Bud no one from snopes.com ever contacted anyone with State Farm. Yet, snopes.com issued a statement as the 'final factual word' on the issue as if they did all their homework and got to the bottom of things - not!

> Then it has been learned the Mikkelson's are very Democratic (party) and extremely liberal. As we all now know from this presidential election, liberals have a purposeful agenda to discredit anything that appears to be conservative. There has been much criticism lately over the internet with people pointing out the Mikkelson's liberalism revealing itself in their website findings. Gee, what a shock?

> So, I say this now to everyone who goes to www.snopes.com to get what they think to be the bottom line facts...'proceed with caution.' Take what it says at face value and nothing more. Use it only to lead you to their references where you can link to and read the sources for yourself. Plus, you can always google a subject and do the research yourself. It now seems apparent that's all the Mikkelson's do.

> After all, I can personally vouch from my own experience for their NOT fully looking into things.

2 comments:

BrianX said...

Riiiiiight. David Mikkelson has been using the handle "snopes" for longer than I've been on the Internet, and possibly longer than I've had a computer. It's hardly any secret who the Mikkelsons are.

It disgusts me though. The wingnuts have come around to dead-agenting one of the best sites on the entire World Wide Web. It's disgusting.

giantslor said...

Surprise surprise - this email is also a hoax. These people have not a speck of shame. But you knew that.

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/snopescom/

From the article:

"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."

The full article is much longer and more detailed, and worth reading.

 
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