Dear friends:

We have probably all been victims of exciting stories circulating on the Internet that turned out to be hoaxes, or urban legends.  Most of us have learned to check such stories out with one of the urban legend Web sites, such as snopes.com.  They may be a good source for many such stories, but personally I have never trusted them 100%.

Reader Ron White confirms my suspicions and provides some insights.  A studious fellow and systematic researcher, I thought you would find his thoughts interesting and helpful. 

Here is some of what Ron said:
_____________________________________

Several folks sent me quotes or referenced web site info from Snopes and other web infomercials, as some indication that the things being forwarded were either hoaxes, false or somehow misrepresented.  Please indulge me, because I'd like to use this subject as a basis for sharing a few points unrelated to this subject -- my mind works differently than most, so please bear with me. 
 
After a few years of this activity and responses to things forwarded, then receiving some kind of "Snopes" or other reference that the information I forwarded is a hoax or false, I did some basic research. 
 
Among findings were:
 
1.  Some information about hoaxes is true.  There are many hoaxes out there. 

2.  Some of the webs sites such as "snopes" were either originated by or are contributed to, college professors, some of whom are among the most extreme of left-wing liberal socialists; some contributors are students aspiring for writing careers, and reporters who were once their students.

3.  Advertisers on Snopes and other web sites are also telling, especially when some of them have shown extreme political biases -- the money sources. 
 
Among some of the things that started me to begin to question Snopes and other such "truthful" web sites, was one supposed hoax letter by a former North Vietnam POW.  Snopes and others indicated this letter was a hoax.  When I forwarded the letter, I knew that whoever wrote that letter knew some intimate, minute details of Banmethuot, RVN and was there during the 1968 TET Offensive to have such knowledge -- and because I was there personally at that specific time, I knew that whoever wrote that letter knew some facts, very small details, that one couldn't glean from the press, especially about missionaries who were also captured and taken captive to North Vietnam and which ones were buried on the Cambodian border.  (I've since been in contact with the State Dept USAID employee who served with me in Banmethuot and who was the POW who wrote that letter, and he now claims "publicly" that he didn't write the letter -- but he DID write that letter -- he received so much anti-war radicalism that he now denies being the author.  Snopes says the letter is a hoax.  It is not a hoax.) 
 
Secondly, when I began to question the validity of Snopes and other supposed "fact-oriented" web sites, I also learned that college children of friends reported that their college professors gave them extra credit in college for researching supposed "facts" and, if they could determine the factual validity or falsity of the information, they would get extra credit for their college courses.  Plus, English profs and other "writing" teachers use subjects in Snopes as teaching tools to investigate subjects to write about by students.  (If anyone would like to hang truth on the opinions and research of today's college kids and their professors, please let me know, so I can more closely evaluate one's credibility.) 
 
Thirdly, some of the medical information being forwarded is medical opinion.  If there is one profession where one gets almost as many opposing opinions about any subject besides lawyers and college professors, it's the medical profession.  I've personally had doctors read my medical records, read what other doctors wrote (some truthfully, some in ignorance), and then observed other doctors going thru the roof in objection.  I've noted this at least a dozen times in the past 40 years -- one surgeon reamed out four other doctors with a vengeance. 
 
Another case is my neurologist who did the medical follow-up after my stroke in 1999.  He is Dr. R.B., MD, Neurologist, Colorado Springs.  He is one who doesn't believe in giving stroke victims a TPA blood-thinning shot in the first two hours of beginning symptoms of a stroke.  (I can't understand his rationale, because the AMA says that over 84% of all strokes are due to thick blood, blood clots, arterial blockages who greatly benefit from the blood-thinning TPA shot -- the remaining very small percentage of stroke victims' strokes, less than 15%, are caused by hemorrhaging or bleeding in the brain, and if a blood-thinning shot is given to one who is already bleeding in the brain, they die -- very quickly.  But for that 84+%, if they receive a TPA shot, they may recover from their stroke without rehab, without permanent paralysis, and other debilitating losses.  Thus, lots of neurologists, in some effort to keep their medical malpractice insurance premiums affordable, NEVER give a TPA blood-thinning shot to ANY stroke victim, in spite of medical facts.  Had I not received the blood-thinning shot, I wouldn't be typing this email to you, and I deplore anyone who "never" administers a TPA blood-thinning shot to "any" stroke victim.  No, I no longer see Dr. RB for any reason.  The excellent ER doctor who treated me for stroke gave me the TPA shot, and I regained most everything without paralysis and without rehab.) 
 
I give these as examples of "opinions."  Snopes and medical references are often nothing more than "opinions."  Often, very biased opinions. 
___________________________________

Ron continues but that is the gist of his comments about snopes.com et al.

Bottom line: Don't believe everything you read on the Internet, even from so-called "truth" sites.  It ain't always the truth, especially if there is a possibility of political or anti-Christian bias from the left-wing academic community.

Jim