The emails keep coming, and coming, and coming …
An Internet rumor is hard to stop, but maybe The New York Times can do it.
The Times reported Wednesday on the University of Kentucky’s long-running campaign to stifle false e-mail reports that it had canceled a class on the Holocaust to appease skeptical Muslims.
“It’s Kafkaesque,” UK Provost Kumble R. Subbaswamy told the Times. “Just when you think you’ve tamped it down, it shows up on another Listserv.”
As the Herald-Leader reported in January, the rumors began after a school in England decided not to offer a Holocaust course to avoid inciting Muslims who doubt the Holocaust occurred.
E-mail reports began in April 2007 using the abbreviation UK for “United Kingdom.” By September, “UK” had become “University of Kentucky” and critical e-mails were arriving in Lexington.
Truth is, UK has offered a very popular Holocaust class for 30 years and even has a Judaic Studies program.
UK has fired back with a press release that produced articles in major newspapers. It also contacted educational groups and even obtained a statement of innocence from the Anti-Defamation League, but still the e-mails come.
Can no one stop the rumor machine?
The New York Times is on the case.
