Exposing "Expose Obama": Good Idea or Bad?
I just sent an e-mail to a guy named Bruce. He's apparently the macher behind Floyd Brown's grotesque website, "exposeobama.com." I'm guessing many of you are aware of the site; it's been getting some attention on HuffPo and elsewhere.
Floyd Brown, producer of the infamous Willie Horton commercial, has decided to celebrate his 20th year of sowing and exploiting racial fears by setting up a website dedicated to spreading lies about Obama. Currently the site features a web ad accusing Obama of being--you guessed it--a secret Muslim.
I sent Bruce an e-mail, the text of which I'll share below, but I want to throw out this question to the TPM community: What is the smart layperson response to these sort of slanders?
On the one hand, calling shenanigans on the bastards seems like the right thing to do--after all, the Obama campaign itself has resolved to do just that, aggressively responding to these internet rumors.
On the other hand, these folks feed on free publicity, good or bad. Any attention, after all, just helps them introduce their virus in the cultural bloodstream.
On the other other hand, the act of letter writing-- done either collectively or individually--probably won't do much harm, but can it do any good? Or is it just be a way for folks like us to blow off some steam? What do we hope to accomplish with this sort of action?
I'm curious as to what folks think about all this. I certainly won't discourage anyone from picking up their e-mail pen and sending a letter of their own to bruce@exposeobama.com. But I'm also happy to entertain other, potentially more effective ideas as well.
Here's the letter I wrote. Feel free to critique it, borrow from it, or ignore it:
Floyd Brown, producer of the infamous Willie Horton commercial, has decided to celebrate his 20th year of sowing and exploiting racial fears by setting up a website dedicated to spreading lies about Obama. Currently the site features a web ad accusing Obama of being--you guessed it--a secret Muslim.
I sent Bruce an e-mail, the text of which I'll share below, but I want to throw out this question to the TPM community: What is the smart layperson response to these sort of slanders?
On the one hand, calling shenanigans on the bastards seems like the right thing to do--after all, the Obama campaign itself has resolved to do just that, aggressively responding to these internet rumors.
On the other hand, these folks feed on free publicity, good or bad. Any attention, after all, just helps them introduce their virus in the cultural bloodstream.
On the other other hand, the act of letter writing-- done either collectively or individually--probably won't do much harm, but can it do any good? Or is it just be a way for folks like us to blow off some steam? What do we hope to accomplish with this sort of action?
I'm curious as to what folks think about all this. I certainly won't discourage anyone from picking up their e-mail pen and sending a letter of their own to bruce@exposeobama.com. But I'm also happy to entertain other, potentially more effective ideas as well.
Here's the letter I wrote. Feel free to critique it, borrow from it, or ignore it:
Dear Sir,
Your deceptive, divisive, and sleazy tactics will not work this time.
This election, you'll discover that real Americans are better than that: we are not falling for race-baiting, fear-peddling, Islamophobia, and plain old-fashioned lies.
Your campaign will only serve to hurt McCain's campaign and damage his credibility by undermining any of his pretensions to high-mindedness and dignity.
Best of luck with that, you un-American hate-monger.
Sincerely,
