Senator Obama is claiming McCain is “making up facts.” Senator McCain is asking Obama for “Straight Talk.” Both would be nice but are they to blame? With the influx of internet blogs there has been a lot of people getting their news information from other news sources. The question is, where does all of this information start from? As a media outlet the Independent is aware that there are many ways to “spin” a story. We also realize the great care required in using information that doesn’t come “from the horse’s mouth.” Many bloggers don’t understand this and take the approach that since it’s on the Internet, it must be true. Then fact-checkers for both campaigns go through Google for the information and there it is. It’s on the internet it must be true. The fact is, that aside from Obama and McCain, most of the information is wrong or “spun” to make it dramatic as news stops becoming a way to inform and becomes a way to entertain. A prime example is the 41-page .pdf that the Obama campaign put out to diffuse the New York Times Best Seller Obama Nation and the report called Unfit for Publication. This is an example from the report.”LIE: “Obama could offer no explanation of why Rita Rezko bought the vacant lot instead…”[p 169]REALITY: Obama didn’t know that the lot was in Rita Rezko’s name until it was in the Chicago Tribune.”
Obama said Tony Rezko never explained that he was putting the lot under Rita Rezko’s name. Then Obama said he didn’t discover it until the story broke in the Tribune. Obama was asked, “Did he ever explain to you what he was doing?” Obama replied, “No. I didn’t discover it until the issue of him purchasing this lot broke through, uh, through you.” [Chicago Tribune Editorial Board Transcript, 3/14/08] The “lie” is from Obama Nation. This is not really a lie though it’s more of a spin. It is a spin Obama does not like, for obvious reasons, but it is not a lie as the Obama Campaign has presented it, because “Obama could offer no explanation of why Rita Rezko bought the vacant lot.” If the book Obama Nation has as many inaccuracies and misrepresentations as this report indicates, there is cause for serious litigation and Obama, a former attorney, should know that. The cover of the Obama report has a seal that says, “Brought to you by the Bush/Cheney attack machine.” The report is political propaganda and cannot be taken too seriously. How many of the issues between presidential nominees are nothing more than spins that are blown out of proportion by the other? How many inaccuracies are there really? How many were confirmed by Wikipedia or a political blog is a mystery. It’s not uncommon in any political campaign to spin a story in your own favor. It is just part of the process. Crying about these things is typically a way to spin media attention back to the candidate that is being attacked.