Prop. 8 donor's tale of woe a bunch of malarkey

[AngryABCGirl]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...entry_id=36929

Prop. 8 donor's tale of woe a bunch of malarkey

Making the rounds in the blogosphere is the apparently disturbing story of a pro-Prop. 8 supporter named Maureen Mullarkey, published in the current edition of the conservative magazine, the Weekly Standard.

The story, entitled, "The New Blacklist,'' starts like this:

"Strange times we live in when it takes a ballot initiative to confirm the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Stranger still when endorsing that definition through the democratic process brings threats and reprisals.

"In November, the San Francisco Chronicle published the names and home addresses of everyone who donated money in support of California's Proposition 8 marriage initiative. All available information, plus the amount donated, was broadcast. My name is on that list."

Mullarkey then described what she said was the ultimate result of the Chronicle report -- a tale of horror and vile harassment and threats that arrived at her home.

"It is one thing to read hate-filled mail on a computer screen. It is something else to have it in hand,'' she wrote. "At the end of the week, when it started coming to my house, I filed a police report.''

One note with regard to her version of the facts on the Chronicle's reporting: it's just not true.

The Chronicle never printed her home address -- or the address of any donor to any political cause.

Ms. Mullarkey, an artist, did contribute $1,000 to the Prop. 8 cause.

But her political donation to a statewide initiative was public information, and available -- as are all such donations -- on the Web site of the California secretary of state. Like the Los Angeles Times, the Sacramento Bee and the Orange County Register, The Chronicle gave its readers that information. The Prop. 8 donor database, which was provided to us by the Associated Press, didn't include Prop. 8 supporters alone -- as Mullarkey strongly suggested.

In fact, it was weighted 2-1 in the other direction, including 96,000 records of donors who were against Prop. 8, as well as 46,000 in favor of the measure. In no case did it supply home addresses of donors.

That hasn't stopped the tall tale by the aptly named Ms. Mullarkey from being picked up by National Review Online and pundits ramping up the outrage factor.

We'll save you all the trouble, folks: Not everything you read on the Internet is true.

[MarshalStealth]

No trail is the best trail ....