Farewell to Ashcroft urban legend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The satirical report on the Democratic Underground website may have seemed bizarre to outsiders, but it was old news to Attorney General John\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/01\/farewell-to-ashcroft-urban-legend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Farewell to Ashcroft urban legend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The satirical report on the Democratic Underground website may have seemed bizarre to outsiders, but it was old news to Attorney General John\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/01\/farewell-to-ashcroft-urban-legend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-01-05T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T22:26:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/01\/farewell-to-ashcroft-urban-legend\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/01\/farewell-to-ashcroft-urban-legend\/\",\"name\":\"Farewell to Ashcroft urban legend\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-01-05T13:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-30T22:26:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"The satirical report on the Democratic Underground website may have seemed bizarre to outsiders, but it was old news to Attorney General John\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/01\/farewell-to-ashcroft-urban-legend\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/01\/farewell-to-ashcroft-urban-legend\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/01\/farewell-to-ashcroft-urban-legend\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Farewell to Ashcroft urban legend\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":1314,"date":"2005-01-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-01-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2005\/01\/05\/farewell-to-ashcroft-urban-legend\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T17:26:52","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T22:26:52","slug":"farewell-to-ashcroft-urban-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2005\/01\/farewell-to-ashcroft-urban-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"Farewell to Ashcroft urban legend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The satirical report on the Democratic Underground website may have seemed bizarre to outsiders, but it was old news to Attorney General John Ashcroft.<\/p>\n\n

According to a fictitious poll by CNN, Time and Cat Fancy Magazine, 52 percent of calico cats surveyed were afraid \u2014 even deathly afraid \u2014 of the attorney general and another 36 percent were \u201csomewhat afraid.\u201d Some cats said they believed Ashcroft is, in fact, a sign of the devil.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThere have been reported cases of young kittens actually dying of fear when Ashcroft appears on television,\u201d said the fake news story. \u201cLuckily for them, they have nine lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Behind the satire was an Internet report that spread as a rumor that became an \u201curban legend\u201d about the Pentecostal<\/a> Christian who was the highest of lightning rods during the first administration of President George W. Bush. Ashcroft will soon leave the cabinet, but this episode offers a window into how the religious and secular left viewed his faith and even the faith of his boss.<\/p>\n\n

The rumor? Here is how it was stated by the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society (www.snopes.com): \u201cAttorney General John Ashcroft believes calico cats are a sign of the devil.\u201d The site says this rumor is \u201cfalse\u201d and calls it \u201cone of the most bizarre items we\u2019ve had to tackle in recent memory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The key to understanding urban legends is that the people who spread them sincerely want to believe they are true, said Barbara Mikkelson, a curator at this urban legends research site. They don\u2019t believe they are spreading lies.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cPeople have a tendency to immediately believe rumors about people that they don\u2019t like or that they don\u2019t respect,\u201d she said. \u201cWe tend to spread the stories that, on some level, we agree with. It tells us that we are right.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cSo along comes this story that is perfect and it confirms all of those views that we already hold. Of course we want to share it. It\u2019s just too perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

In the Internet age, legions of people click \u201cforward\u201d and pass the rumor along to friends through email, many of whom do the same or even post it somewhere on the World Wide Web.<\/p>\n\n

Urban legends are especially popular among religious conservatives, millions of whom believe that mainstream media conspire to hide the best and the worst of the news. Thus, digital true believers excitedly circulate reports about NASA confirming biblical miracles, evil activists asking the Federal Communications Commission to zap religious media and a born-again president boldly sharing his faith with troubled teens.<\/p>\n\n

But this particular legend sprang up on the left, beginning with web columnist and Democratic National Committee treasurer Andrew Tobias. Citing anonymous sources, he wrote that members of Ashcroft\u2019s advance team had confirmed that their boss \u201cbelieves calico cats are signs of the devil\u201d and wants them removed from his path.<\/p>\n\n

When pushed, Tobias declined to be more specific about sources. The tale of the demonic cats leapt into cyberspace and assumed a life of its own, as anyone can learn by typing \u201cAshcroft,\u201d \u201ccalico\u201d and \u201cSatan\u201d (or \u201cdevil\u201d) into a computer search engine.<\/p>\n\n

The attorney general laughed off the rumors \u2014 again and again. Finally, a reporter from The American Enterprise asked if he had any idea how the rumor began.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cAbsolutely none. \u2026 In any case, there\u2019s no truth to it,\u201d said Ashcroft, a graduate of Yale and the University of Chicago Law School. \u201cI owned a calico cat on the farm I lived on until I went away to be the state auditor of Missouri.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Still, the urban legend grew. It even reached the New York Times.<\/p>\n\n

The natural tendency, said Mikkelson, is to focus on who starts the rumor. The more important question is this: Who is spreading the urban legend and why are they doing so? The Ashcroft rumor is especially interesting because it was spread by powerful people in the mainstream of politics and media.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWhat we have here is a mirror held up to the people who are spreading it,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat it shows us is something about their values and their hopes and their fears about the world around them. \u2026 Even if the story isn\u2019t true, they believe that it ought to be true. They want it to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"