Michael Jordan and the PLO Arabs Revisited (Or: How To Recognize a Hoax)
Reader Harry explains why the Michael Jordan story I blogged about yesterday was never mentioned by the main media - it was a hoax!
Thank you Harry. My faith in “His Airness” is restored. I jumped to that erroneous conclusion about him quicker than he ever jumped to the basket.This story sounds like hogwash.
This quote from the ADL is absurd:
Myrna Shinbaum, public relations director for the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, said that Jordan was “obviously anti-Semitic” and vowed that any celebrity who came out in support of the Palestinian cause would be “utterly closed off from public life forever.”
A search on ADL’s site proves it:
Michael Jordan Target of Bogus Internet Report
Posted: October 3, 2002
A recent “news item” posted on several Web sites and circulated via e-mail alleges that basketball legend Michael Jordan was recently criticized by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and others for wearing a black armband to show solidarity with the Palestinians. The report reads as if it were a news story, yet has no validity or truth whatsoever. The quotes attributed to an ADL spokesperson are fabricated.One version of the e-mail, which has been posted on a Muslim listserve, was altered to give it the appearance of having been distributed from The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a national civil rights organization. This is simply not true. On its Web site, the ADC indicates that their organization has recently been the target of malicious e-mail attacks, where hackers posing as legitimate ADC e-mail users have sent out thousands of forged messages.
This experience has made me realize that I better check my sources more thoroughly before posting in future. But at least there are readers out there who will put me in my place when I screw up.
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.
