OT On the editorial page of my daily newspaper, there appeared a column by Joe Murray of the Cox News Service. The 3rd paragraph: "Here’s an example, an anonymous e-mail that’s rampant on the Internet, under the heading of "President Bush’s religious ethic."
The column goes on to quote in its entirety the very same story that you, Jerry, attributed to your cousin, about George W. Bush stopping for 30 minutes at a campaign volunteer’s banquet to discuss Christian conversion with a teen-ager.
After relating the story, the author comments, "Personally, I, too, nearly choked when I read the story, but for me it was more of a gagging reflex. This is so made up that it’s silly. The very first sentence contains the tipoff that it’s hooey. ‘There’s is a man in our church, Jeff Benoit, who has a friend….’ That’s the earmark of most every e-mail myth. You never hear the story from an eye-witness, but always somebody ‘who has a friend’ who was there."
Mr. Murray goes on to say, "Never mind that it’s doubtful George W. could talk on any subject for as long as 30 minutes. But if he did, at a campaign banquet, you can bet the press would be there at this elbow to report it. And it would be a heck of a story. That’s why I went ahead and phoned the information to Ken Herman, the reporter who won the Pulitzer Prize for the Lufkin Daily News and now covers Bush for the Austin American-Statesman. He, in turn, put the question to the Bush people. Here’s his report back to me: "No banquet, no story, never happened."
Pat T’s instinct about this story was correct. There may be a few here who owe her an apology.
[For all who are inclined to lecture me about putting politics on the thread again, save it. I probably won’t be reading it.] |
