Trying to help the Editor of The Record out, a friend of mine wrote out the following letter in reply to Mary Powers letter about John Kerry.
To the Editor:
I read with some interest the letter to the editor written by Mary Powers of Millers Creek.
I was specially intrigued by the quote attributed to Senator John Kerry at President Ronald Reagan's funeral. There were several aspects of the quote which didn't seem right. John Kerry is a practicing Catholic and regularly attends mass: why would he say anything so snide about church-goers? I remember reading in the newspapers at the time of President Reagan's death respectful remarks made by Senator Kerry about the former president, and, furthermore, Senator Kerry stopped campaigning for a week in honor of the official mourning period. I also remember that the funeral at Simi was a small, private affair at which only President Reagan's children and pastor spoke. So neither the content nor the context of the quote made any sense.
I did some research. That particular quote has been circulating on the Internet as part of a chain letter. What the chain letter does not tell you is that the quote is part of a parady press-release which appeared in a joke website called Kerrycore.com (a.k.a. the John F'n Kerry Website). The quote appears at the beginning of an article which, as all good parodies do, becomes wilder and wilder. There is this disclaimer at the end of the story: "The John F'n Kerry Website is a parody website, intended for entertainment purposes only. The articles, comments and information entered upon these web pages should NOT be repeated as the truth or be taken as the real quote, article, event, concept, or happening."
I don't blame ms Powers for passing on this totally fictitious quote. We are so bombarded with information nowadays that it is hard to separate truth from fiction at times; however, I am surprised that The Record having printed ms Power's letter as a pseudo-editorial did not bother to check out the source of the quote. It only took about fifteen minutes to find. I expect better from you.
Respectfully,
[My anonymous friend]
Oh well. The Record, while willing to print a letter reporting facts that are, frankly, not credible, was not willing to print the above letter. I believe the letter writer may have been surprised at this: I was not.
Of course, it is possible that as the second letter writer assumes, it was all simply a mistake made in good faith. I am cynical enough to think otherwise, but that is a mute point.
To the Editor:
I read with some interest the letter to the editor written by Mary Powers of Millers Creek.
I was specially intrigued by the quote attributed to Senator John Kerry at President Ronald Reagan's funeral. There were several aspects of the quote which didn't seem right. John Kerry is a practicing Catholic and regularly attends mass: why would he say anything so snide about church-goers? I remember reading in the newspapers at the time of President Reagan's death respectful remarks made by Senator Kerry about the former president, and, furthermore, Senator Kerry stopped campaigning for a week in honor of the official mourning period. I also remember that the funeral at Simi was a small, private affair at which only President Reagan's children and pastor spoke. So neither the content nor the context of the quote made any sense.
I did some research. That particular quote has been circulating on the Internet as part of a chain letter. What the chain letter does not tell you is that the quote is part of a parady press-release which appeared in a joke website called Kerrycore.com (a.k.a. the John F'n Kerry Website). The quote appears at the beginning of an article which, as all good parodies do, becomes wilder and wilder. There is this disclaimer at the end of the story: "The John F'n Kerry Website is a parody website, intended for entertainment purposes only. The articles, comments and information entered upon these web pages should NOT be repeated as the truth or be taken as the real quote, article, event, concept, or happening."
I don't blame ms Powers for passing on this totally fictitious quote. We are so bombarded with information nowadays that it is hard to separate truth from fiction at times; however, I am surprised that The Record having printed ms Power's letter as a pseudo-editorial did not bother to check out the source of the quote. It only took about fifteen minutes to find. I expect better from you.
Respectfully,
[My anonymous friend]
Oh well. The Record, while willing to print a letter reporting facts that are, frankly, not credible, was not willing to print the above letter. I believe the letter writer may have been surprised at this: I was not.
Of course, it is possible that as the second letter writer assumes, it was all simply a mistake made in good faith. I am cynical enough to think otherwise, but that is a mute point.
posted by Clemens | 11:55 PM
2 Comments:
Your anonymous friend was being nice to a fault in allowing Mary Powers off the hook so easily.
While it was probably not malicious, it is incredibly ignorant to believe that ANY politician would make such a statement.
The newspaper has an obligation to point out (perhaps as an editors note) that she is mistakenly quoting a satirical piece.
This sort of thing infuriates me in internet chain/protest letters. If everyone would just THINK for a second whether or not the bull crap spewed is plausible or not we wouldn't be deluged these letters.
For your readers http://www.snopes.com is an excellent reference for the more questionable cases.
--Joey
Yep.
That's about my take on it.
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