Once again, a Southern Minnesota conservative reaches for a debunked urban legend for "evidence." The Houston County News has published a letter from M.J. "Mac" McCauley of Winona, First learn about candidate's viewpoint, then vote, that cites the Alexander Tyler "Fall of the Athenian Republic" nonsense.
The widely-emailed urban legend also attributes opinions and statistics to Hamline Law prof Joseph Olson that he doesn't hold; in fact, Snopes reports that he himself first learned of his supposed view when someone sent him the email. McCauley cites a portion of the Olson section of the bogus email.
A longer version of McCauley's letter appeared in the Winona Post under the ironic headline, Voters must be informed. McCauley himself should start by checking up on his own source material, rather than relying on truthiness.
Bluestem caught the use of this misinformation back in April in Jackson County Pilot publishes urban legend--with a twist. In that instance, the letter writer's target was illegal immigration. Here are McCauley's targets from both versions of the letter in the Winona Post and the Houston County News:
It takes work and study for voters to be informed. Be informed on what the policies of candidates are, what their views on federal taxes are, what their approach is to entitlements and benefits, their approach to Muslim extremists, and on the pro-life debate.
It certainly does take work and study for voters to be informed, and we hope they spot and discard false urban legends when making their decisions.
Nice catch, Ollie. My local shopper, er, 'scuse me, "newspaper", has the tendency to repeat GOPer horseapples, too. A little over a month ago, "The Eden Prairie News" let a former GOPer-Endorsed candidate for the state house to repeat the bogus claim: "the Chinese are drilling 60 miles off the Miami shoreline."
I had a go-around with the Editor about that; but I doubt anything will change. The Eden Prairie Shopper is home to Erik Paulsen and the most virulent strain of republiCons I have ever had the misfortune to meet.
http://www.mnblue.com/node/1854
Posted by: TwoPuttTommy | August 19, 2008 at 08:36 AM