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Running Head: POLITICAL RUMOURS 1

POLITICAL RUMOURS 7

Political Rumours

Charles Fisher

Post University

Political Rumours

Rumour characterises a host of organizational and socially psychological phenomena, including prejudice, social cognition, and stereotyping. It also involves intergroup and interpersonal relations, organizational trust, and communication. For instance, Samuel Freedman depicts the dishonour in political rumour mongering by drawing conclusions from the 1930s anti-Catholicism and the 2008 presidential elections anti-Muslim sentiment (Behrens & Rosen, 2013). The objective purpose of this study is to research other political rumours in history and to outline their the causes, agendas, fears, and hopes expressed by them. Sarah Palin suffered a wave of rumours that surfaced about her new bornnewborn son, Trig. Soon after then presidential candidate, Senator John McCain announced her as his running mate; , rumours surfaced claiming that her supposed son was not hers. Palin, together with the McCain campaign team, dismissed the rumours as false. Conspiracy theorists refer to the photos of Palin as evidence to their claim. The photos, taken in late March the similar year, show Palin’s stomach as flat, nothing like the image of an expectant woman. However, other photos of Palin show her with a round belly. The theorists also raised the query of why the politician prolonged medical care after her water broke whilst while on the Texas trip. According to reports, it took more than 15 hours for Palin to get to her hospital after boarding a plane back to Alaska. Some claimed that Trig, who was born with Down’s syndrome, might have been that the son of Palin’s teenage daughter Bristol. However, the rumour is inaccurate and misleading as it was reported that Bristol gave birth to her own child, Tripp, in December. As the medical reports indicate, Trig’s birth month was in April (Kapferer, 2009). Delete extra spacing The Palin rumour came during an election period and affected the McCain campaign team negatively. Voters and a section of supporters decamped to the opposition side. Even after the rumour ended up cleared, the damage was evident as the McCain team failed to recover completely. Perhaps, crippling their support base was the agenda of the source of the rumour. Delete extra spacing. Similarly, during the 2000 GOP presidential campaigns, a myth alleging that Senator John McCain had an illegitimate black child struck the public (Morrow, 2009). The Arizona Senator was then running a heated clash in South Carolina against rival George W. Bush. John McCain denied the rumours and dismissed it as a plot against him fabricated by his rivals. Politicians loyal to John McCain accused Karl Rove, a political analyst, of being behind the rumours. However, Karl Rove dismissed the allegation during an interview with NBC’s “Today Show.” The political operative went further to assert that the origin of the rumour had no association with the George Bush campaign group, but from a professor at Bob Jones University. The rumours had an adverse effect on John McCain as he was on the losing side. John McCain lost South Carolina 42% to 53% to rival, George W. Bush (Morrow, 2009). The rumour caused McCain’s supporters to decamp to the rival camp. Delete extra spacing. The rumour ended up clarified after John McCain admitted that indeed he was the father of a black child. However, the child was not biologically his as she was of Bangladeshi origin, and he adopted her. The McCain team attempted to repair the damage done by the rumour, but they failed as John McCain lost to George W. Bush. The main objective of the rumour was to prevent him from winning the campaign against George Bush. The rumour, even though was a false accusation, managed to negatively affect John McCain’s support base as he lost supporters in South Carolina who ended up voting for George W Bush. The Clintons’ also suffered a public out lash after a rumour alleging that they were behind the death of Vince Foster found its way into the media. Vince Foster, during the time of his death, was a deputy counsel at the White House and a close ally to the first couple. Authorities found his body in a Federal Park in Virginia (Polsby, 2012). His death ended up ruled as a suicide by investigators. With the sole purpose of discrediting the Clintons, the Arkansas Project raised the notion that the first couple was responsible for the murder of Foster together with others who may have possessed incriminating evidence against the former Arkansas governor. No evidence of a link resulted from three investigations into the death of Vince Foster. The Clintons denied any involvement in the death, and Bill Clinton dismissed any foul play, citing that investigators already termed it as a suicidal case (Polsby, 2012). Delete extra spacing between paragraphs. Upon investigation, the authorities found a suicide letter alleged to be by Vince Foster. However, the letter ended up dismissed as a fake since the FBI failed to trace Foster’s fingerprints on it (Polsby, 2012). Furthermore, the letter had 27 pieces after being torn. Multiple investigations allege that the pieces were supposed to be 28, ; therefore, the letter missed a piece. Strangely, investigators did not find the letter during the original investigation. The letter turned up on July 26, 1993. However, the White House held the letter for over 24 hours before handing it over to the authorities. Officially, Vince Foster’s death ended up ruled as a suicide even though it is still a subject of political conspiracy with a number of theorists’ trying to prove otherwise. In his literature, Polsby (2012) states that the investigative reports that ruled the death as a suicide were from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the United States Park Police (USPP), the United States Congress and the Department of Justice. Independent investigations by counsels Kenneth Starr and Robert Fiske also ruled Vince Foster’s death as suicide. Frontline, a television show, described the death of Vince Foster as that of a man who knew too much, thus resulted resulting into his death that was probably a murder case. However, contradicting the findings, political groups proceeded to claim that Bill and Hillary Clinton know more to the murder than they revealed and that they are trying to cover their tracks. Undeniably, the theoretical components surrounding rumours and its their affiliation with other forms of informal communication, such as urban legend and myths, are enduring concerns among social scientists (DiFonzo and & Bordia 2007). Sunstein (year) outlines the idiom to refer to claims of facts concerning groups, people, institutions, and events that end up not established as true or accurate. However, the move from one individual to another lacks credibility because other individuals seem to believe them rather than direct evidence being known to support them. Finally, DiFanzo came to describe the content of rumours as “Instrumentally significant information statements that are unconfirmed” (2007, p. 14). Scholars have an irregular consensus regarding the connotation of “rumour.” Rumour remains an expression of certainty in relation to a definite event that is thought to have happened or is about to occur. Rumours are present in every societal background. The assertion may pique our attention; however, it lacks what the bigger political organization considers as secure standards of evidence. Comment by Rebecca Coleman: These are British spellings. You should be using American spellings of words, not British. Comment by Rebecca Coleman: The serial comma MUST be used in APA format. Comment by Rebecca Coleman: British spelling. Comment by Rebecca Coleman: Do you mean same? Comment by Rebecca Coleman: Titles of TV shows should be in italics. Comment by Rebecca Coleman: We use apostrophes to indicate possession. You do not mean possession here. Comment by Rebecca Coleman: This is not really the right word here. Comment by Rebecca Coleman: Knew more about

References

Behrens, L., & Rosen, L. J. (2013). Writing and reading across the curriculum (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Comment by Rebecca Coleman: Sustein is cited, but not referenced here. You should cite the individual authors, not the editors of our textbook.

DiFonzo, N., & Bordia, P. (2007). Rumor psychology: Social and organizational approaches. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Kapferer, J. (2009). Rumors: Uses, interpretations, and images. Comment by Rebecca Coleman: You are missing information for this reference.

Morrow, J. D. (2009). Game theory for political scientists. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.

Polsby, N. W. (2012). Presidential elections: Strategies and structures of American politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

You have a good foundation here. You noted some specific rumors regarding political figures, and you noted some theory regarding how and why rumors develop. A clear connection between the actual rumors and theory is needed, however. How do Sustein’s and DiFonzo’s ideas about rumor explain why those rumors were started? You mention agenda briefly, but there needs to be a clear connection with the reasons for rumors.

Good use of APA format for the most part; there are some details that you need to address for your next essays. Please refrain from using British spellings.

Score: 90/100

Characteristics

Score Assessment

Integration of Knowledge

Student fully understands and has applied concepts learned in the course. Provides concluding remarks that show analysis and synthesis of ideas.

Student, for the most part, understands and has applied concepts learned in the course. Some of the conclusions, however, are not supported in the body of the paper.

Student, to a certain extent, understands and has applied concepts learned in the course.

Student does not demonstrate that the author has fully under-stood and applied concepts learned in the course.