Friends on Facebook often post things and ask the rest of us to share by re-posting. The problem is that these tidbits are not always what they seem to be. Before I re-post anything, I check it out on the marvelous urban legend web site www.snopes.com
Today someone posted something by George Carlin. Except George Carlin never wrote it. Snopes revealed the essay,The "The Paradox of Our Time", was written by Jeff Dickson in 1998. It was a great piece and sounded like Carlin, but no, it wasn't his. Carlin himself denied over and over that he wrote it, but it keeps wandering around the Internet with his name affixed. Even odder, along the way someone added a bit of grunge that might have been written by Erma Bombeck or maybe even Helen Steiner Rice. Carlin material? Absolutely not.
So I posted a reply to the sender revealing the truth. I've done this before. It is always resented. "Why not send it on?' they ask. The friend thought it was a nice touching piece. What harm could it do?
What harm? We live in a media world full of misinformation. People listen to Fox News and find web sites that agree with whatever they want to believe. They listen to people who stretch the truth for a living. I don't want to contribute to it.
Besides, I taught English, worked as a librarian and for years was a journalist. Checking sources becomes a habit. I want attribution before I share anything.
The people who get the angriest with me, as it happens, are writers, librarians and teachers. Shouldn't they be at the forefront of correcting errors, misconceptions and outright untruths?
I think the Mickelsons at Snopes are heroes valiantly struggling to keep the Internet honest.
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