Fake Michelle Obama Interview Fools Internet

There’s a little bit of buzz on teh ol’ internetz (that’s the tubes, for those of you stuck in 2006) about an interview Michelle Obama (Barack’s wife, for those of you stuck in a cave or a survivalist bunker with no outside communication system who are just now venturing out because you realize that Y2K didn’t quite work out, nor has the United States been turned into a Mad Max-esque terrorist laden wasteland) supposedly gave to an African news outlet. 

The article, published by an organization that calls itself “African Press International,” says that an irate Michelle Obama called their offices and complained that the outlet “spread rumours created by American bloggers and other racist media outlets in their efforts to damage a black man’s name,” and “evil people who are out to stop her husband from getting the presidency.” “Michelle Obama” then goes on to state that her husband “loves his country” and that the organization will receive favorable treatment (presumably from “the Obamas”) if they “write a good story about her husband.”

Anyone who has spent more than a cursory amount of time online in 2008 should see through this ruse in about half a second. Firstly, let’s start with the “news outlet” itself: a blog hosted on Wordpress. Seriously? What respectable news source can’t even buy a domain? Even if we take into account the dismal economic conditions in most African nations, I think it is still safe to assume that a legitimate news organization can get their own site. In fact, a simple Google search for “Africa news” brings up several African news sites that are not blogs and have their own domains. This is not to say that blogs can’t have credible and important information on them, they certainly can, but blogs are easy to create and keep anonymous. The credibility of this interview is shaky already.

Next, let’s look at the Obama campaign itself. For those who have been watching, Michelle, Barack and the team have been incredibly disciplined with the press during this campaign. In fact, one of Barack’s perceived strengths is his cool, calm demeanor. It’s more than a little suspect that Barack Obama would green light his wife Michelle calling up random bloggers across the globe in Africa to vent.

Truth is an important commodity on the Internet. With anonymity so easily achieved and widespread publication guaranteed, the Internet seems to breed a certain amount of trickery. This is understandable, given the circumstances. However, with all these sorts of cyber shenanigans taking place it is also imperative that the Internet user of today remain cautious and more than a little wary when sourcing information from the Internet. This tale, coming on as it does in the middle of a Presidential campaign, shows us that that old maxim “don’t believe everything you read” applies equally to the Internet.

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