Andy Rooney has always been one to clearly state his opinion and he is doing that once again – saying that he never made the racist commentary attributed to him that is circulating around the Internet in an email. Yet he is cautious, not wanting to give the originators of these emails any more attention than they have already received.
Rooney told AP that he hated to think that people believed he wrote the things said in those emails. The email is filled anti-minority statements such as “I have the right not to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.” This isn’t Andy’s first run-in with false statements in an email. He has also been incorrectly credited with an email that praises the qualities of women over the age of 30. But Rooney is a little more susceptible to these emails because of his job as a commentator on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
If you are like me, every once in a while, you get an email quoting someone, usually George Carlin, Bill Gates, or Ted Nugent. But, if you look it up on Snopes.com, you will usually find it is a fake – that they never actually said what the email quotes them as saying. I guess most celebrities either do not care or do not know about the emails, but Andy Rooney is not one to stand by and let this ruin his reputation.
And if there is one thing I know – do not make the old guys angry. They do not get mad – they get even! Rooney has tracked the originator of the “women over the age of 30” email as far as a post office box in Colorado. Rooney said he did not know what he would have done if it had been a home address, but it would have been nothing physical. At the age of 88, I would imagine not!
So next time you get an email from a friend that says so-and-so said something, look it up. Chances are, it isn’t really their words after all.
Related Blogs:
Urban Legends – How Do You Know What’s True?
No Child Left Behind Hoax- Now Coming to an Email Near You!