LymeBlog

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Lexington, KY USA
By Mac McDonald, Editor, LymeBlog News

An anatomy of misinformation and Internet harassment by Lyme disease associations

Although researching organizations and Action Alerts is not an easy task, we all need to check the facts before firing off phone calls, faxes and emails to politicians

I would hope that everyone reading this article would know by now that when they receive emails containing false information that they have not really won the Nigerian Lottery, that Microsoft will not really send them thousands of dollars if they forward an email to 8 people, and that the little boy who is dying will not really receive money if they forward the email to everyone they know. Most of these misinformation emails are familiar to all of us. These emails are worded in such a way as to motivate the reader to action out of hope of personal gain or a desire to help someone. The old saying is, "When something sounds too good to be true it usually is."

Recently there has been a rash of misinformation email and Internet campaigns with various political agendas spread by persons representing major political parties. Unlike the notices above, these email campaigns contain information meant to enrage the reader and motivate them to take action. These online, political, misinformation campaigns often sound "too bad to be true", but they must be. How else could someone put them on the Internet?

There must be laws which require that information on the Internet be factual, right? Wouldn't someone who spread false information harm their own credibility and, therefore, hurt their own cause?

What follows is this journalist's attempt at dissecting the anatomy of just one such case of a false information campaign: spread using the Internet to one small, special interest group of followers and resulting in well meaning people harassing politicians and spreading a false rumor to everyone they know.

In my opinion, this particular misinformation campaign has damaged the credibility of the perpetrators rather than helping their cause.
In the age of the Internet anyone can claim to be an authority on a subject and quickly spread false rumors to thousands of people
I think I see a formula in most political disinformation campaigns on the Internet:

Step 1 of a disinformation campaign: Claim to be speaking for a large number of people.

Step 2 of a disinformation campaign: Issue a public statement, press release, media interview or letter that contains false, inflammatory, statements or true statements, intended to be inflammatory, which are not relevant to the subject being discussed.

Step 3 of a disinformation campaign: Express indignation and spread emails or Internet announcements, again with false statements or true statements which are not relevant, and ask others to join your fight and spread the word.

Step 4 of a disinformation campaign: Use words and terms in your documents that will incite outrage in your Internet audience with false statements or true statements which are not relevant.

Step 5 of a disinformation campaign: Keep your attacks simple and include very little, or no, actual explanation of your position.

Step 6 of a disinformation campaign: Make it necessary for the object of your attack to make lengthy, complicated responses or explanations which most people will not understand.

Step 7 of a disinformation campaign: If the object of your misinformation campaign: responds, escalate your attack. Keep repeating the false statements or true statements which are not relevant.

We are looking at an "Action Alert" from someone claiming to represent a national organization. If the communication contains inflammatory wording and logical accusations the reader is motivated to spread the word to everyone they know and, in the Internet age, that requires little more than clicking on FORWARD in their email program.

If the false "Action Alert" calls for the reader to contact a politician and includes suggested wording for an email, fax, or telephone call it makes that action that much easier. If the names, phone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses of the politicians are included it makes it almost an effortless task on the part of the reader to take action.

What if the false information comes from someone who claims to speak for anywhere from 4 to 35 organizations depending on to whom they are making the claim?

SR-133 in New Jersey and Lyme disease:

When New Jersey State Senator Christopher “Kip” Bateman (R-16) decided to sponsor a resolution to urge the Governor to encourage a private business to locate their research center, dedicated to chronic neuroendocrine immune disorders or NEIDs (Senate Resolution no. 133) in the State of New Jersey he must have thought it would be a "slam dunk".

Senator Bateman is a conservative, “Taxpayer Champion” who does not shy away from expressing his opinion on controversial issues. He has 15 years experience in state government.

But this resolution should not be a controversial issue. This should not require a lot of the Senator's time or staff resources. After all, his co-sponsor is from the other side of the aisle, Senator Loretta Weinberg (D-37), so there should not be opposition along party lines. There should not be any opposition from the federal government, both the National Institute of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approve of the research center. Patient advocate groups should be supportive, after all, the more research into their ailments the better. Easy job, write the resolution, get it through committee and get a vote to pass it.

Beside, this is not like a bill, this is not trying to pass a law, this is basically asking the Governor to encourage a private industry to locate in the Garden State. It is good for the economy which is good for his constituents.

I can only imagine the Senator's surprise when he received a letter dated October 6, 2009, from a person claiming to be the president of the "national Lyme Disease Association" (note that national is not capitalized in the letter therefore is not part of the official name of the organization). This letter is supposedly representing the views of 35 affiliate organizations. The letter is signed by Patricia V. Smith, President, Lyme Disease Association, Inc.

Step 1 of a disinformation campaign: Claim to be speaking for a large number of people.

Smith includes a list of 33 organizations with the name of the ...

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