By David Emery

"No good deed goes unpunished," wrote Clare Booth Luce in a pique of cynicism. Columnist David Galloway of the Houston Chronicle would surely agree.

Galloway regularly braves the swamp of Internet misinformation to separate the truth from the muck for Chronicle readers. His efforts are not always appreciated.

A devoted pet owner and subsciber to various pet-related mailing lists, Galloway came across an email rumor warning that Febreze, a fabric deodorizer made by Procter & Gamble, poses a serious health threat to animals. The email cited alleged incidents in which dogs and birds had actually died after being exposed to the product. It did not, however, offer substantiating evidence, which set off Galloway's B.S. detector. He investigated.

Reporting his findings in a March 14, 1999 column entitled "Another Hoax Surfaces to Waste Our Time," he labeled the allegations "pseudoscientific babble." He carefully explained why they lacked credibility, offered evidence to refute them, and chastised rumormongers for spreading lies via forwarded email.

Angry responses began rolling in immediately. "Nothing I've ever written before has drawn so much hate mail," he wrote with consternation in a follow-up column. "Serious, mean-spirited, vicious hate mail."

Instead of addressing his arguments, the critics hurled epithets. They called him "foolish," "pompous," "naive," and "lazy."

One wrote: "[I]t is obviously not just the crhonicle [sic] that pays you, and it is obvious that you don't care much for animals either."

That was a low blow.

"I like birds as well as anybody," Galloway responded. "What I'm after here is a little thing called truth."

Well, the truth may set you free, but it doesn't always win friends. I'm quite sure his words of protest fell on deaf ears.

Fear and loathing

Galloway's experience should ring familiar to anyone who has ever stood up to rumormongers in a public forum. It's an illusion to think you can beat them with the facts, because the facts rarely turn out to be the bottom line. It's something deeper.

In this case, Mr. Galloway had ventured into a minefield of public opinion having little to do with the pros and cons of Febreze. The true object of the fear and loathing expressed in those rumors was Procter & Gamble, the powerful corporation that manufactures the product.

Facts be damned. Big corporations are evil, and Procter & Gamble is one of them. Rumors are weapons in a populist Holy War. To publicly challenge their veracity is to take sides with the devil.