LETTER: Here's how letter writer was 'duped'

Bob Fraser’s letter of Jan. 17, 2016, poses the question, “has the U.S. been duped?” The answer is, “Yes, it most certainly has, but not by President Obama.”

Mr. Fraser, like pretty much all of the radical right-wing in this country, are rabid believers of anything anti-Obama that is posted on right-wing blogs and disseminated through the right-wing media without regard to the truth. The truth about Mr. Fraser’s attributions is readily ascertainable by referring to nonpartisan fact checkers such as FactCheck.org, or Snopes.com. However, the radical right-wing, sadly, has no interest in the truth about President Obama.

While Mr. Fraser claims that President Obama’s books should be required reading for anyone of voting age, it is clear that he himself has never read them. Instead, he has taken fabricated quotes from right-wing blogs and published them as fact. Cases in point are the quotes Mr. Fraser claims were taken from the president’s books.

First, Mr. Fraser states that, in “Dreams from My Father,” the President wrote, “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race.” According to Snopes.com and FactCheck.org, “Nothing like this quote appears in Obama’s books.” The other statements Mr. Fraser wrongfully attributes to President Obama are likewise debunked by both Snopes.com and FactCheck.org, so those interested in the truth can find it on those sites.

Please note that none of the quotes in Mr. Fraser’s letter contain page references. As was observed by FactCheck.org in response to inquiries about the validity of the very same quotes from right-wing blogs, “This should be a sign to any reader that the author is trying to pull a fast one, betting that you won’t take the time to read through all 806 pages of Obama’s books to get to the facts.” FactCheck.org goes so far as to say, “Anyone looking for Barack Obama’s real sentiments about whites, blacks and Muslims won’t find them in this scurrilous collection of falsified, doctored and context-free ‘quotations.’”

So, Mr. Fraser, and others who might have been duped by the radical right-wing, let’s see some cites to actual page numbers for you attributions and prove FactCheck.org and Snopes.com wrong.

Mr. Fraser is correct about one thing. It will probably “take decades to repair the damage that has been done to this country.” However, the damage done to this country was perpetrated by the right-wing Obama-haters, and all those who perpetuate the lies of the right-wing bloggers. Reasonable minds may differ on whether President Obama, or any president, was a “good” president, or a “bad” president, with citations to specific actions or inactions, but when lies are manufactured and maliciously disseminated out of pure hatred, the whistle needs to be blown.

No one calling himself or herself “American” can truly believe that spreading any kind of lie about anything or anyone is acceptable. The problem is that someone who is blinded by malice is the last one to know. —Al Weed, Kalispell