Jun 12, 2008 9:13 pm US/Pacific
Campaigns Try To Spread Their Own Truths Via Web
(CBS)
(AP) — Democrat Barack Obama's campaign said Thursday that Michelle Obama never used the word "whitey" in a speech from the church pulpit as he launched a Web site to debunk rumors about himself and his wife.
The rumor that Michelle Obama railed against "whitey" in a diatribe at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ has circulated on conservative Republican blogs for weeks and was repeated by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The rumor included claims of a videotape of the speech that would be used to bring down Obama's candidacy this fall.
The site is a response to the realities of a brave new world, where information travels 24 hours a day on blogs and voters are increasingly turning to the Internet for information. It's a particular problem for Obama, a relative newcomer to national politics who is still unknown to many voters and has been the target of persistent misinformation campaigns online.
http://www.fightthesmears.com
Not to be outdone, McCain's campaign has a site called "The McCain Report - A Blog You Can Believe In"
It's not as overt in debunking specific myths, but it does touch upon what the other candidate is saying as well as the media, and the McCain's stance on those topics.
http://www.johnmccain.com/mccainreport/
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
