Commenting on the story Religion of Peace Demonstration Hoax Photos, reader J.D. McCarty recently said:
You moron. Check it out at Snopes.com
Hoax? Bah Humbug on you. – reader, J.D. McCarty
Thank you for your comment, JD.
If you read what Snopes says on their page – they are cheating on this issue.
They say the photos are real. (true) – I also said the photos are real.
Snopes decided to ignore the hoax.
The hoax is
1. there was no demonstration called the Religion of Peace Demonstration
– there were multiple Mohammad cartoon demonstrations.
2. The photos were from two or more separate days and places
3. The mainstream media did not cover this up because they might offend Muslims.
– they reported the original demonstrations extensively
– they obviously didn’t report the Religion of Peace Demonstration because it never happened.
The emails change all the time, as people inject their own ideas, for their own reasons, such as to make it more believable or perhaps to increase the tension.
If you are OK believing and spreading lies because some photos are real, but the rest is false, then you are open to believing lies about anything, as long as one part is true.
I don’t believe you are OK with that. I think you haven’t thought this through fully.
What those particular Muslims in the photos did and said was very bad.
What the hoaxers did was also very bad.
Our silence if we do not speak out about lies is also bad.
If I didn’t write the story, then in 5, 10 or 20 years from now, when this is brought up, it will be very hard for anyone to remember that it never happened and people born after 2001 could believe that the media covered up this demonstration.
That would be a dismal failure on our part – and by “our part,” I mean you and me and anyone with a brain.
You may think I am a moron, but I will not allow this lie to be repeated, unchallenged.
I am extremely disappointed in Snopes because they have elected to hide behind a reframing of the question for a reason unknown to me and they should at least say it is a hoax email.
Snopes does a disservice to all who rely on their investigations and pronouncements and they do a disservice to all who look to them for the truth on hoaxes. Snopes did not reply to my request for comment.
Their page says only that the photos are real. They are passing on the fact that the email is a hoax and by doing that, they infer that the media really did a cover up, which they definitely did not.
My faith in Snopes is vastly diminished.
