Fake Obama Thesis Rattles Viral Page Sites and Fools Conservative Radio Star Rush Limbaugh

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 27, 2009 --

If you were to ask somebody on the street to name one viral phenomenon they know, chances what they’ll mention is a video clip in Youtube or in other video-sharing site. Now while videos are the most frequent media to “go viral”, it is not just relegated to it in fact. In fact, the concept of the viral phenomenon has become so ingrained into modern society that any newsworthy event can go viral even without having a video of it. One good example of one that is currently making the rounds across viral page websites is the fake college thesis supposedly made by US President Barack Obama that was featured as fact by conservative radio pundit Rush Limbaugh.

Everybody who listens to his show knows that Rush Limbaugh does not like President Obama. So it’s probably no surprise that the right-wing commentator jumped on the opportunity to criticize the US commander-in-chief through a newly-unearthed controversial senior thesis he supposedly wrote at Harvard. The paper, which was titled Aristrocracy Reborn, was actually written by the viral page humor blog Jumping In Pools as satire and posted August 25, 2009. The article featured gems like Obama describing the struggle against “plutocratic thugs with one hand on the money and the other on the government”, and that the American founding fathers “did not allow for economic freedom”. But what made the post really controversial was the supposed thesis raised doubts about the US Constitution, claiming it “fitted… the shackles of hypocrisy” among the people. The article also featured the name of Joe Klein, a renowned reporter working for Time magazine, as the source of information.

As with most posts from other non-mainstream blogs, the Obama thesis hoax might have gone down the drain. But in a twist of fate, the article was picked up by blogger Michael Ledeen on Twitter, and was posted on his blog as fact. It was in turn found by Limbaugh who almost immediately featured it in his radio show and further back his idea of Obama’s “disdain” for the Constitution. The show immediately made the supposed “Obama thesis” an internet sensation and turned it one of the hottest searches on Yahoo! and Google as well as a hop topic amongst viral page political sites on the web.