Chris Hayes' article on the power and opacity of political e-mail forwards -- those endless chain e-mails detailing Obama's time in a radical madrassa, or Hillary Clinton's murder of Vince Foster -- is critically important stuff. As Chris writes, "the e-mail forward doesn't fit into our existing model of the right-wing noise machine's structure (hierarchical) or its approach (broadcast). It is, instead, organic and peer-to-peer. If the manufactured outrage over Kerry's botched joke about George Bush's study habits was the equivalent of a Hollywood blockbuster, the Gold Star Mother smear was like one of those goofy viral videos of a dog on a skateboard on YouTube. Of course, some of those videos end up with 25 million page views." Critically, it comes from your friends. Sourcing matters in politics, and these e-mails, though not written by your pal, comes with her stamp of approval, making them instantly more credible to you. But who are they written by? Chris, in a particularly impressive feat of reporting, managed to track down the original author of one. His identity will surprise you.
