Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
Established in 1995, Snopes has long been the go-to site for running a rumor through the BS-detector, and its proprietors, David and Barbara Mikkelson, have assumed an almost mythic stature as the most authoritative discoverers of truth and falsity online.
But who's checking the fact checkers?
Here's the essence of a chain e-mail that FactCheck.org decided to fact check: Is Snopes.com run by a Democrat duo who hide their true identities, rarely do any real research, and blatantly fabricated a tale about a State Farm Insurance agent just because he publicly opposed the election of Obama?
No, no, no and no were the conclusions.
Employing that age-old reporter's trick of contacting the primary source -- in this case, State Farm -- FactCheck.org was able to confirm that, yes, the insurance giant had asked agent Bud Gregg to stop using its brand name as his political soapbox.
The group could find no evidence of political contributions or activism on the part of the Mikkelsons -- he's a former Republican turned independent; she's a Canadian who cannot vote.
You'd be hard-pressed to find two more apolitical people, FactCheck.org said. They checked online to see if they had given money to any federal candidates, and nothing turned up.
Mikkelson even faxed in a copy of his voter registration form. He asked FactCheck.org not to post an image of it, but they confirm that it shows he declined to state a party affiliation when he registered last year, and that when he registered in 2000 he did so as a Republican.
Do the Snopes.com articles reveal a political bias? FactCheck.org reviewed a sampling of their political offerings, including some on rumors about George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama, and found them to be utterly poker-faced.
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2235277/data-center/fact-checking-the-fact-checkers--snopes-com-gets-an--a-.html
But who's checking the fact checkers?
Here's the essence of a chain e-mail that FactCheck.org decided to fact check: Is Snopes.com run by a Democrat duo who hide their true identities, rarely do any real research, and blatantly fabricated a tale about a State Farm Insurance agent just because he publicly opposed the election of Obama?
No, no, no and no were the conclusions.
Employing that age-old reporter's trick of contacting the primary source -- in this case, State Farm -- FactCheck.org was able to confirm that, yes, the insurance giant had asked agent Bud Gregg to stop using its brand name as his political soapbox.
The group could find no evidence of political contributions or activism on the part of the Mikkelsons -- he's a former Republican turned independent; she's a Canadian who cannot vote.
You'd be hard-pressed to find two more apolitical people, FactCheck.org said. They checked online to see if they had given money to any federal candidates, and nothing turned up.
Mikkelson even faxed in a copy of his voter registration form. He asked FactCheck.org not to post an image of it, but they confirm that it shows he declined to state a party affiliation when he registered last year, and that when he registered in 2000 he did so as a Republican.
Do the Snopes.com articles reveal a political bias? FactCheck.org reviewed a sampling of their political offerings, including some on rumors about George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama, and found them to be utterly poker-faced.
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2235277/data-center/fact-checking-the-fact-checkers--snopes-com-gets-an--a-.html
