I recently received the first one about how Obama's tax plan is supposed to work. It was sent to me and my friends by a friend making fun of it. He in turn received it from what appears to be a very long thread. This thread is started by a VP at Bear Sterns.
His name was clear, his office number was there, and his title was clear. I will not reprint any of it, though, because I called him and asked him about it. Whether he sent it willfully as a show of support for John McCain, or as he told me, as an "I can't believe what people are saying about Barack Obama, look at this..." I don't think it appropriate to punish him further. He told me how many people have called or emailed him. His supervisor isn't happy with the notoriety, either.
This just goes to show the new playing field unfolding in the campaign arena: no longer does the negative campaigning come in the form of a negative ad, but it is a full-court press of emails (spam, actually!), YouTube videos, and blog posts. But the method in question today is that of the trash-talking email, or eTrashMail.
The eTrashMail format is one where blatant lies seem to be used but with the appearance that they are coming from an unquestionable source. For instance, in the one above, the source about taxes was coming from a VP at Bear-Stearns (yes, I know they are not exactly sporting a spotless reputation these days...).
eTrashMail can only mean that there will be only one winner this election season: the advertisers on Snopes.com! If you want to see who is the clear eTrashMail winner (meaning who's attacking the most), see the truth about Barack Obama and the same for John McCain. Obviously, the right wing smear machine is working overtime...
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