Viral E-mails: Dangerous to the Community

May 13

Jeanette FriedmanInternet, Jews, middle east, politics No Comments

MALCOLM HOENLEIN TALKS TECHNOLOGY AND THE JEWISH WORLD

May 13, 2010–The e-mail came from a news source in Europe, who got it from a guy in New York, who got it from a couple in Los Angeles, who got it from a guy who “just received this from my friend in Israel, who moves in high circles, who heard it from a consultant to the United States who meets once a month with the President in the White House. He is in the know. This is what actually has happened with the relationship with Israel and the U.S.A. and it is not pretty.”

What followed was a litany of “crimes” by the U.S. administration against Israel. Some of them were based on kernels of truth that had been convoluted into “reports” designed to galvanize people into action by injecting them with the fear factor. One accusation was exaggerated truth. Others were patently ridiculous, and some of them were oversimplifications of complicated diplomatic matters that are not controlled by anyone in the U.S. Some were outright lies.

How does one find out the truth behind these viral e-mails? One way is to check with Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (COP). As a fellow who spends most of his time getting his news first hand from newsmakers and reporters, he is a human aggregator who has to have his finger on the facts (or his nose in the news), day in and day out.
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