Brett Banter

Several of our friends posted a very poignant quote Monday attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. about the death of Osama Bin Laden. If you haven't seen it, you need to get more gullible friends because it turns out it was a fake. Mostly. The first part of the quote about mourning the loss of thousands and not celebrating the death of one enemy was created out of thin air and attached to the front end of an actual King sermon.

This is not the first time a hoax has gone viral quickly in the Internet age. It reminds us of the one almost 10 years ago (in the dark days before social media when people just e-mailed you dumb conpsiracy theories) about a stanza from Nostradamus that seemed to predict the Twin Towers destruction. Fail And that reminded us of the creepy early 1980s movie narrated by Orson Welles (shudder). It also reminded us of the great cartoon character debate from last November and December on Facebook. You remember -- change your profile pic to a cartoon character to raise awareness for child abuse...no wait don't change because it is an international pedophile conspiracy ..no wait the pedophiles didn't create it...no wait again they like the idea.

I guess the old adage of accuracy counts does matter. Until then, Martin meet Nostradamus.