Internet Petitions, Forwarded Articles and Other Interesting Issues

Recently I received a forwarded e mail petition about a bill in Congress concerning illegal immigrants and social security. It was sent to me by a friend who was concerned about one of the issues mentioned in the petition. I was ready to delete it, but instead, I thought about it, and set her an answer. As I looked at the petition, I saw a long list of people who signed the petition, and long list of people who had forwarded it, but no where could I find who started it or a date. None of the "facts" in the petition were substantiated. And finally, I thought, if this was such an important bill, why hadn't I read about it in the newspaper, or heard about it on the news. (I watch a lot of CNN and listen to an all news radio station)
Earlier this spring, I got the Barak Obama Muslim petition. As I think back on it, many of the same issues were present. No one took responsibility for sending it, but it had been forwarded many times. There were no substantiated facts. This time, I just deleted it.
Now, the question: what should you do when you get one of these petitions or e mails? Should you forward it to every body on you list? Should you delete it? Is there a way to check out the information and find out if it is true? I did a bit of research, and found out that there are two sites that will help you to determine the truth in this kind of e mail.

1. FactCheck.org This site's longer name is the Annenberg Political Fact Check. It has a list of news articles, and verifies the facts in them. It is easy to use, and is a legitimate site.

2. Snopes.com This site is a little more sketchy. It appears to debunk urban legends--which are often the subject of many forwarded e-mails. It also has a lot of ads sprinkled amid the information, and doesn't look as polished as the FactCheck.org site. I decided to look further and check out the big chart on the first page. I clicked on immigration, and found information about the petition I received. It does this in a easy to use way. It presents a statement, and next to the statement, there is a red dot, a green dot, a red and green dot or a yellow dot, each explained. Red stands for false, green for true, red and green for partially true and so on. There are also articles and quotes that explain why the statement is true or false.
Next, I clicked on Barak Obama, and there was the Muslim e mail--also debunked.
My conclusion--this is a good site and a legitimate one, since everything is backed up by reputable sources.

I know that people like to help out others, and one way they think that they are doing this is by sending important information to their friends and family. But the next time, you get one of these things, take a minute to check out the information in the e mail. If it checks out as true, then forward it. You will be helping them by sending information that you know is accurate.