One thing I don’t like to do is get political in any of my articles, but I feel if I don’t really jump to one side or the other, I can make a small point. During most campaigns you’ll notice an interesting phenomenon occurring. Each candidate will begin to label the other with certain tags. These tags are repeated like mantras, and the more they are repeated, the more credibility they seem to have. In the US, our two major political parties have done it for decades. If you asked the average American to point out on a map where India is they might have some trouble. If you asked them which political party they think of when they hear the phrase, “Tax and spend,” they will immediately say, “The Democratic Party.”

I remember some years ago a rather heated argument that broke out in the hallways of Xerox where I was working. The White House had come out with its annual budget, and the more conservative friends of mine were furious. “Can you believe it? Tax and spend all over again! Such terrible waste makes me ashamed to even live in this country!”

I was amazed at just how intense this argument was… particularly since that argument occurred the morning after this report came out… and particularly since this report was over 1,000 pages… and particularly since other than some senior government officials, no one had actually seen it yet. How could anyone have such an intense opinion regarding a report they had never even seen? The answer is, the information was coming from a conservative media outlet providing sound bites for its supporters to parrot. It didn’t matter what the truth was. It was appearing on television, and it was appearing in print, and it therefore had to be true. With the explosion of the internet, these types of problems are no longer the problem of political parties. This is now a problem that has the potential to affect anyone. Anyone has the potential to post almost anything regardless of the truth. What’s more, often the individual whose reputation is at stake isn’t even aware of the slander they may be subjected to.

What can we do about it? That’s the scary part, because the answer seems to be, “not much.” This issue affects me all the time. As an author many people buy books online, and on these sites such as Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com, anyone can write a review. Of course if someone is going to write a review at least they will be qualified to write it. Wrong. Not only are they not qualified to write it, but sadly it is a common ploy by competitive authors to write scathing reviews on books that are competing with theirs. It appears in print, and therefore it must be true.

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