For all you snopes believers !!!!!

[hondaking38]

Truth or Fiction is another website beside Snopes you can check. TruthOrFiction.com-Is that forwarded email Truth or Fiction? Research into stories, scams, hoaxes, myths, and urban legends on the Internet
"Dogpile" is a seach engine which searches multiple other search enginess so it gives you a wide cross section of answers: Dogpile Web Search

READ FOR YOURSELF AND DECIDE....Guess we need to go back to doing our homework friends!


For the past few years snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages has positioned itself, or others
have labeled it as the 'tell-all, final word' on any comment, claim and e-mail.>

But for several years people tried to find out who exactly was behind
snopes.com. Only recently did Wikipedia get to the bottom of it -
kinda makes you wonder what they were hiding. Well, finally we know.
It is run by a husband and wife team - that's right, no big office of
investigators and researchers, no team of lawyers. It's just a
mom-and-pop operation that began as a hobby.

David and Barbara Mikkelson in the San Fernando Valley of California
started the website about 13 years ago - and they have no formal
background or experience in investigative research. After a few years
it gained popularity believing it to be unbiased and neutral, but over
the past couple of years people started asking questions who was
behind it and did they have a selfish motivation? The reason for the
questions - or skepticisms - is a result of snopes.com claiming to
have the bottom line facts to certain questions or issues, when in
fact, they have been proven wrong. Also, there were criticisms the
Mikkelsons were not really investigating and getting to the 'true'
bottom of various issues.

When I saw that Snopes had falsely claimed that Obama's Birth
Certificate had been properly validated, I realized something was
wrong with either their research and/or their credibility. It seems
something is seriously wrong with both.

Then a few months ago, when my State Farm agent Bud Gregg in
Mandeville hoisted a political sign referencing Barack Obama and made
a big splash across the internet, supposedly the Mikkelson's claim to
have researched this issue before posting their findings on
snopes.com. In their statement they claimed the corporate office of
State Farm pressured Gregg into taking down the sign, when in fact
nothing of the sort ever took place.

I personally contacted David Mikkelson (and he replied back to me)
thinking he would want to get to the bottom of this, and I gave him
Bud Gregg's contact phone numbers. Bud was going to give him phone
numbers to the big exec's at State Farm in Illinois who would have
been willing to speak with him about it. He never called Bud. In fact,
I learned from Bud Gregg no one from snopes.com ever contacted anyone
with State Farm.
Yet snopes.com issued a statement as the 'final factual word' on the
issue as if they did all their homework and got to the bottom of things.
Not!

Then it has been learned the Mikkelson's are very Democrat and
extremely liberal. As we all now know from this presidential election,
liberals have a purpose agenda to discredit anything that appears to
be conservative.

There has been much criticism lately over the
internet with people pointing out the Mikkelson's liberalism revealing
itself in their website findings . Gee, what a shock!

So, I say this now to everyone who goes to snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages to get what
they think to be the bottom line facts: Proceed with caution . Take
what it says at face value and nothing more. Use it only to lead you
to their references where you can link to and read the sources for
yourself.

Plus, you can always google a subject and do the research yourself. It
now seems apparent that's all the Mikkelson's do. After all, I can
personally vouch from my own experience for their 'not' fully looking
into things.
Snopes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Poorboy]

Truth or Fiction is another website beside Snopes you can check. TruthOrFiction.com-Is that forwarded email Truth or Fiction? Research into stories, scams, hoaxes, myths, and urban legends on the Internet
"Dogpile" is a seach engine which searches multiple other search enginess so it gives you a wide cross section of answers: Dogpile Web Search

READ FOR YOURSELF AND DECIDE....Guess we need to go back to doing our homework friends!


For the past few years snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages has positioned itself, or others
have labeled it as the 'tell-all, final word' on any comment, claim and e-mail.>

But for several years people tried to find out who exactly was behind
snopes.com. Only recently did Wikipedia get to the bottom of it -
kinda makes you wonder what they were hiding. Well, finally we know.
It is run by a husband and wife team - that's right, no big office of
investigators and researchers, no team of lawyers. It's just a
mom-and-pop operation that began as a hobby.

David and Barbara Mikkelson in the San Fernando Valley of California
started the website about 13 years ago - and they have no formal
background or experience in investigative research. After a few years
it gained popularity believing it to be unbiased and neutral, but over
the past couple of years people started asking questions who was
behind it and did they have a selfish motivation? The reason for the
questions - or skepticisms - is a result of snopes.com claiming to
have the bottom line facts to certain questions or issues, when in
fact, they have been proven wrong. Also, there were criticisms the
Mikkelsons were not really investigating and getting to the 'true'
bottom of various issues.

When I saw that Snopes had falsely claimed that Obama's Birth
Certificate had been properly validated, I realized something was
wrong with either their research and/or their credibility. It seems
something is seriously wrong with both.

Then a few months ago, when my State Farm agent Bud Gregg in
Mandeville hoisted a political sign referencing Barack Obama and made
a big splash across the internet, supposedly the Mikkelson's claim to
have researched this issue before posting their findings on
snopes.com. In their statement they claimed the corporate office of
State Farm pressured Gregg into taking down the sign, when in fact
nothing of the sort ever took place.

I personally contacted David Mikkelson (and he replied back to me)
thinking he would want to get to the bottom of this, and I gave him
Bud Gregg's contact phone numbers. Bud was going to give him phone
numbers to the big exec's at State Farm in Illinois who would have
been willing to speak with him about it. He never called Bud. In fact,
I learned from Bud Gregg no one from snopes.com ever contacted anyone
with State Farm.
Yet snopes.com issued a statement as the 'final factual word' on the
issue as if they did all their homework and got to the bottom of things.
Not!

Then it has been learned the Mikkelson's are very Democrat and
extremely liberal. As we all now know from this presidential election,
liberals have a purpose agenda to discredit anything that appears to
be conservative.

There has been much criticism lately over the
internet with people pointing out the Mikkelson's liberalism revealing
itself in their website findings . Gee, what a shock!

So, I say this now to everyone who goes to snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages to get what
they think to be the bottom line facts: Proceed with caution . Take
what it says at face value and nothing more. Use it only to lead you
to their references where you can link to and read the sources for
yourself.

Plus, you can always google a subject and do the research yourself. It
now seems apparent that's all the Mikkelson's do. After all, I can
personally vouch from my own experience for their 'not' fully looking
into things.
Snopes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now watch all the Obumma Zombies Deny that they got their Infoirmation from Snopes!! That would be Too Funny

 

[Pilgrim]

There has been much criticism lately over the
internet with people pointing out the Mikkelson's liberalism revealing
itself in their website findings . Gee, what a shock!

So, I say this now to everyone who goes to snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages to get what
they think to be the bottom line facts: Proceed with caution . Take
what it says at face value and nothing more. Use it only to lead you
to their references where you can link to and read the sources for
yourself.

Plus, you can always google a subject and do the research yourself. It
now seems apparent that's all the Mikkelson's do. After all, I can
personally vouch from my own experience for their 'not' fully looking
into things.
Snopes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You ought to also post this on the Soapbox - there are quite a few people that have been led to believe that Snopes was the gospel on everything.

 

[Turtle]

This "article" is a well know Urban Legend in and of itself, chronicled in detail at FactCheck.org

It's amazing what people will believe at face value if you pretty it up enough and if it coincides with your preexisting views. But when you get to the bottom of this "article", it's just another whiner trying to pass himself off as legitimate. Too funny.

It may be that whoever penned this only recently became familiar with Barbara and David, but they have been well known in Internet circles for a long time going back to their early Usenet days (where I also come from) before the first Web browser was even invented. Their identities have never been a mystery.


There was an interesting thing that happened at the end of March where someone made up something, just invented it in his own mind, and posted it to a Wiki page. It was, of course, an unreferenced entry with no footnote 'cause he made it up. He did this to prove a point about the research that is often found on Blogs and other Internet "news" sites, to see if anyone would pick up on it. He was right.

A 22 year old University College Dublin student, Shane Fitzgerald, saw on the news that Oscar-winning French composer Maurice Jarre had just died, and knowing that people would be scrambling for information on him for obituaries, he made up a false quote of Jarre's:

"One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear."

Again, Jarre never said such thing, it was totally made up.

The throngs of Wiki editors quickly removed it within hours, but he added it back in. It was removed and added several times over the next few days, and at one point was left on there untouched for more than 24 hours before being removed. Fitzgerald gave up at that point, but it turned out to be long enough.

The "quote" was not only picked up and used by Bloggers for their obituaries to Jarre, it was also picked up by the traditional press, newspapers (for example, The Guardian - see bottom of page for their correction) and television news. Too funny.

But wait, there's more! What's really funny is, someone else then picked the quote out of the traditional press (New York Times) and added it to Jarre's Wiki page, and referenced the print media as the source, thereby giving the fictitious quote absolute credibility. How funny is that?

The online version of the New York Times no longer has the quote contained in it's obituary, it was removed without comment. The entire quote has since been removed from Wiki and references have been updated.



Whether it's Snopes, Factcheck.org or whoever, always check out the links they provide and do your own research. You can't always believe what you read on the Internet. Maybe it's because I come out of the early days of Usenet, before the Internet was even the Internet, I dunno. but I learned early on that the Internet was largely just the funny papers, and you have to look at nearly everything you see on it as pure hogwash until it's proved true. Innocent until proven guilty doesn't work on the Internet, it's actually the other way around. Look at everything with a skeptical eye, especially now. People who want you to believe something, people who want to manipulate you, they know full well that if you read it you'll tend to believe it. Most people do.

The Internet is fast and furious where rumor and fiction can become stone cold fact in a matter of minutes when it's published on enough Web sites, something that happens largely automatically, and quite literally at the speed of light. People's minds are rather easily molded as it is, and the Internet only makes it easier. Be carefull out there, it's a dangerous place.

 

[RLENT]

For the past few years snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages has positioned itself, or others have labeled it as the 'tell-all, final word' on any comment, claim and e-mail.

But for several years people tried to find out who exactly was behind snopes.com. Only recently did Wikipedia get to the bottom of it .....

Doesn't really seem likely to be a true statement ..... since these guys were out in the public eye .... at least as far back as 12 years ago:

What Debunks a Legend Most? Research

King,

Since the text of this post is lifted from somewhere on the web (obvious from the formatting that came with it) you might want to post the source, so's we might actually see whose material we're reading (and make whatever judgements we might about that individual's agenda)

Personally, I'd be a little skeptical ..... given the apparent inaccuracy of the individual's comments .....

Now watch all the Obumma Zombies Deny that they got their Infoirmation from Snopes!! That would be Too Funny

Yeah ..... unfortunately, it wouldn't be quite as funny as some of the other commonly retarded things you can read here on EO at times.

BTW, I heard that you absolutely had to have the Snopes sekret decoder ring just to be an Obumma Zombie ..... and if you ever went there to Snopes, even just once and read only one thing, you were absolutely doomed to become an Obumma Zombie ..... some sort of Vulcan mind-meld thing I guess

(Ever notice how Obama and Leonard Nimoy look so much alike ? ..... spooky ....)

C'mon LDB ...... fess up - is it true ? (snopes.com linked by LDB eleven times in the last three years )

..... hmmmmm .... ....... yeah ....

 

[mjolnir131]

it's the ears

 

[xiggi]

For what it's worth...

FactCheck.org: Is Snopes.com run by "very Democratic" proprietors? Did they lie to discredit a State Farm insurance agent who attacked Obama?

 

[LDB]

Wow, I look something up on snopes about once every four months. Whew, who'd have thought I was so addicted and spending so much time on snopes. Man, once every four months. I've got to watch that or it could turn into a quarterly thing.

 

[layoutshooter]

I looked up ONE thing, ONE time!! I might be in trouble!!!