Latest Smear Chain Email- Obama's Dog Bo

In this day and age of charged partisan attacks and tension, we have all received one of those chain email from a family member or a friend that they just had to forward to us. It is always some weird rumor that was started and caught fire within a certain group of people, but it is always devoid of fact and full of the writer's personal political bias or belief. Most of us just delete the email quickly, but some of us like to read them and debunk them for the fun of it.

It is always important to remember that the truth is more important than the political goal that one is trying to achieve with an email like one of these below sent around. If one only wins by lying and tearing someone else down, is that really a victory? Have ethics and morals really gone away? If you knowingly write/forward one of these emails in hopes to make someone else believe what has been written, you are spreading a lie and that is calling "bearing false witness against your neighbor".

It is more than acceptable to be critical and disagree with someone else's idea, opinions, beliefs, and/or philosophy.

This is the smear email being spread around by conservatives :

Chain e-mail: This is about the guy who just hates those dirty corporate executives who make over $200,000 a year.

Bo’s vacation

HOW CAN AMERICA BE SO BLIND???????? UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!! I guess since they had to swallow their pride and use the Gulfstream there just wasn’t enough room for the dog and one other person. Did you know the Pres. flew BO, the dog, in on a separate smaller jet to Maine for their vacation???? Wonder if that sets well with all the unemployed, hurting, US citizens who can’t afford food, but we can pay for this.

The above is true. I Googled "Bo the dog flying to Maine " and got 76,700 references verifying this.⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full text ⬏

The issue with this email is that it is far from the truth.  It was started by a rumor that wasn't confirmed, but someone ran with the rumor anyways.  People are so quick to play "I got you" politics that the people are willing to win any means necessary.  Here is the Fackcheck.org's debunking of this chain email:

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/09/bos-private-plane/

The issue with this email is that it is far from the truth. Here is the Fackcheck.org's debunking of this chain email: Here is the final analysis and statement by this debunking of this smear chain email against our President of the United States:

"It’s safe to assume the first dog is a high-class hound, but he doesn’t fly around on his own plane."

This was all started by one careless newspaper reporter who thought they had a great story and decided to run with it. The only problem was they didn't have all the facts and did not double check their information, which caused them to have to post a correction the next day. The issue with one of these corrections is that it usually isn't posted on the front page like the original story and it doesn't get as much attention so the original story usually spreads without the correction.  This is a good example of why people are not reading newspapers anymore because people are tired of bad journalism and just throwing stories out to get attention, but ignore the actual facts of a story.

Is it too much to ask for responsible journalist these days?