Weasel Confirms: Snopes Fox Fit to Guard Hen House

So now we learn that David Axelrod has a military chauffeur.  Axelrod the man who invented astroturfing has been the man at President Obamas right elbow from the get-go. In addition to the familiar SEIU rent-a-mob often pictured in the state run media astroturf is also a technique of layering seemingly different entities that actually have the same source.   And they often speak off of the same talking points with the goal of:

1. Shaping public opinion or
2. Covering up the facts actions & motivations they do not want the public to know.

In other words shaping public opinion. Marxists everywhere know that if you control a mans opinions you can control his convictions his actions and his life. For this purpose we find entities like True/Slant FactCheck.com About.com and Snopes.com. I have long suspected Snopes as being unreliable without being able to put my finger on the exact reason other than I knew nothing about the people who own it. In a dangerous world I have learned: Dont trust until you verify." But now that we know their names who are David & Barbara Mikkelson? What are their political convictions? And who gave them the power to affirm or deny every piece of information that exists? Exhibit A Is the owner of Snopes.com a liberal? (Nov 27 2008) Over at RenewAmerica.com Donald Hank takes a shot (figuratively of course) at ferreting out how reliable they are and finds them wanting.

Snopes.com has been accused of being run by a flaming liberal." But now a defender of Snopes about.com has rushed to their aid writing a story about how conservatives have attacked poor Snopes.     ... First there is something you should know about About.com. As clearly stated at the bottom left of their home page they belong to the New York Times a news outlet most Americans have said they dont trust and that is demonstrably far left. Hardly inspiring of confidence. Frankly the reader should be questioning About.com a whole lot more than snopes.com although the fact that about.com is defending snopes is to snopes discredit. Beyond that there are little clues that stand out everywhere in the article appearing on Snopes itself and quoted at About.com. For example if you look up the stuff about Obamas nationality you find that they print a version that accentuates the silliest claims in order to make the reasonable ones seem silly too. That is what we call a red herring. The Left is very adept at this tactic.

Yes indeed. Read the whole article. Hank is very well reasoned and he ends by saying this:

Conclusion: be wary of Snopes. I dont necessarily think they lie but they present conservative emails in a very unfavorable light so unfavorable that it is hard to call their presentation objective.

Exhibit B Snopes: Reliably Liberal & Liberally Unreliable Ace of Spades

Im not sure if I ever posted the German brothel story a story about women being told they might have to take jobs as sex-workers (i.e. whores) or lose welfare benefits but if I did I guess I have to note that Snopes debunks" the story. But a sharp-eyed reader of National Reviews The Corner debunks that debunking and notes that Snopes is hopelessly left-leaning.

Aces language is generally speaking a bit raw but I agree with him when he says So read Snopes at your own risk. For urban legends and email scams its a great site. For anything having to do with politics its a lefty spin-site." Exhibit C In good company? David and Barbara Mikkelson appeared along with the atheist Richard Dawkins in the 2005 documentary" film The God Who Wasnt There. (Full cast list here.) The teaser line is:

Did Jesus exist? This film starts with that question then goes on to examine Christianity as a whole.  A bold eye-opening and hilarious film!"

There are no photos and no bio whatsoever available of these two on this site. Exhibit D Snopes Exposed This email which I received is literally all over the internet presented by those both for and against its viewpoint.  It has been read on the air on conservative talk shows. The author Alan Strong is actually listed on TechServe Executive Board of Directors 2010. In any case here are some excerpts:

For the past few years http://www.snopescom has positioned itself or others have labeled it as the tell-all final word on any comment claim and email.  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 thats right no big office of investigators and researchers no team of lawyers. Its 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?     ...

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 Mikkelsons claimed 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.     ... 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 Mikkelsons are very Democratic (party) and extremely liberal. As we all now know from this presidential election liberals have a purpose and agenda to discredit anything that appears to be conservative. There has been much criticism lately over the Internet with people pointing out the Mikkelsons liberalism revealing itself in their website findings. Gee what a shock! So I say this now to everyone who goes to snopes.com to get what they think to be the bottom line fact proceed with caution. Take what it says at face value and nothing more.     ...

Truth or Fiction is a better source for verification in my opinion. I have recently discovered that Snopes.com is owned by a flaming liberal and this man is in the tank for Obama. There are many things they have listed on their site as a hoax and yet you can go to YouTube yourself and find the video of Obama actually saying these things.  So you see you cannot and should not trust Snopes.com ever for anything that remotely resembles truth! I dont even trust them to tell me if email chains are hoaxes anymore.     ...

Alan Strong CEO/Chairman Commercial Programming Systems Inc. 4400 Coldwater Canyon Ave. Suite 200 Studio City CA. 91604-5039 888-277-4562 X. 306 Direct 888-812-9234 or 818-308-8561 Mobile # 818-522-9319 FAX 818-301-2054

Alan Daves of the Texas Mob Father weighs in:

Nothing new for me … for years I have questioned the authenticity and agenda of this couple … dont know why Wikipedia is just now getting around to doing their due diligence." I did my own research many years ago about this twosome … and I have never accepted their imprimatur" as the gospel … presumptuousness by elitists chaps my gluteus maximus!"

Im with Alan Daves. In conclusion

• It is prudent to suspect anyone who claims to be impartial or unbiased.
• When it comes to politics especially such a person is often in the employ of the adversary but is pretending to be harmless.
• Dont accept the premise that no one knows the truth.
• If you do you will give up resisting and that is exactly what the adversary desires. Dont allow them to disarm you.
• Since God knows the truth make sure you are on His side. He wont betray you.