Thestory had all the makings of a juicy spy novel -- espionage, modern technology, national security and the impending visit of the President of the United States. Earlier this week, an alarming blitz was circulated amongst the Dartmouth population stating, "The FBI is monitoring all BlitzMail transmissions on campus in anticipation of the President's arrival at graduation, and there is no law protecting users' rights if damaging material, i.e. explicit language, drug use, etc., is recorded." It all sounded very intriguing. The only problem is the blitz wasn't true.
Before we had time to mobilize our forces and protest this outrageous violation of our rights, follow-up blitzes were sent out by Kiewit employees. Apparently, besides being illegal, monitoring BlitzMail would be time consuming and virtually pointless. The FBI couldn't do it without Kiewit knowing, and Kiewit would not allow this sort of thing to take place. One blitz I got chastised all of us "silly people out there" for believing the rumor. The message ended with the admonition, "Don't be so gullible."
Now, maybe I was being less than discriminating. However, I don't think that those who believed the blitz are suffering from a complete inability to distinguish fact from fiction.
What we are suffering from is an unwillingness to question the authenticity of BlitzMail. I guess my natural assumption was that, if someone took the time to write the original message and someone else forwarded it to me, it was probably true. (Interestingly, those who forwarded the facts from Kiewit to me were not the same people who had sent the original blitz.)
We have come to rely on BlitzMail for more than just setting up lunches with friends. We get our news from it. I hardly have time to read this very newspaper, I never watch TV and it would probably be a waste of my money to subscribe to any type of news magazine. Consequently, the only news that I receive with any regularity is the weather forecast and Kenji Sugahara '95's Weekend Update. I see how BlitzMail could easily become my pipeline into the real world, if only someone would take the time to summarize a daily national newspaper in 200 words or less.
Because people like me rely on BlitzMail and because we believe it, this system has the potential to instigate a lot of gossip. An automatic rumor mill lies before us, ready to begin operating as soon as some ill-intentioned fingers hit the keyboard of a Macintosh. One blitz could potentially reach the entire campus in a matter of minutes. That's a pretty scary thought. The information age has made it a whole lot easier not merely to spread truths, but also to propagate falsehoods on a massive scale.
In most cases, these lies are relatively harmless. The April fool's joke that my sorority played out over BlitzMail was somewhat amusing -- our treasurer had us all believing that dues would be increasing for the Spring term.
I've also been tricked into thinking that the CEO of Proctor and Gamble is a devil worshipper, all as a result of a blitz. However, the FBI surveillance case is less innocuous. Once gossip like that gets started, it's difficult to correct.
I suspect there are still a few students who believe that the FBI really is monitoring their BlitzMail. They're probably wondering why our federal government doesn't trust us. And, I bet they're making an awfully conscious effort to refrain from typing anything that could be considered explicit.
