On the Fake Romney / KKK Smear From the Fake Seth Rogen
Stuff like this is annoying to those of us who report on real issues with real white supremacists and neo nazis.
Seriously, Internet? I just had to type that headline? I mean, I went to journalism school and everything. We were told about the storied reporters of yesteryear, slugging it out over bourbon and typewriter ink as they chased crooks and delivered hard, useful truths with no concern about profits or marketing or hit counts. These were men of character charged with the sacred trust of informing the greatest democracy in history and they took it seriously.
Today, this ridiculous Seth Rogen tweet (belonging to someone NOT Seth Rogen) is popping up across Facebook and Tumblr and spawning those kinds of ridiculous threads where people go back forth dozens of times and then unfriend each other in fits of Internet rage. All to the delighted digital thumbs-ups of casual, uninformed observers who feel good about being part of “the process.” And reaching a wider audience much faster than anything ever dreamed of in those storybook journalistic golden years.
The facts are, of course, quite boring. The slogan “Keep America American” is a KKK slogan, but not an official Romney anything. His official slogan is “Believe in America.” He has said the phrase “keep America America,” and a Los Angeles Times article from 2011 quoted him as saying “keep America American,” but later issued a correction.
Yawn.
It doesn’t take a poli-sci major to understand why liberals want to spread a rumor that involves “Romney” and “KKK” in the same sentence. Likewise, a Romney quip about his birth certificate smacked of birther-movement innuendo. The campaigns on both sides have been dishonest and accused of dirty tricks and nefarious deeds. The media like to say how this is the dirtiest campaign ever. New York Magazine points out that this has been said about every election since 1988. I argue that it could be, and that the last election was, for its time, the worst. Like that scene in “Office Space” where Peter tells the therapist that every day is worse than the day before, so everyday you see him, its on the worst day of his life. Every election is the worst election ever. And social media isn’t helping.