Obama ‘Foreign Donation Scandal,’ Hyped By Right-Wing, Based On Inaccurate Google Translation

[highplainsdem]

Source: ThinkProgress

As ThinkProgress detailed Tuesday, right-wing and mainstream news sources have extensively misrepresented a new report by the conservative Government Accountability Institute (GAI), suggesting incorrectly that the report details widespread foreign money flowing to President Obama’s re-election campaign. A further review of the report finds that the sole example included of a foreign-national donor giving to the Obama campaign was, in fact, based on a translation error.

The GAI’s report, America the Vulnerable: Are Foreign and Fraudulent Online Campaign Contributions Influencing U.S. Elections? cited a Norwegian blog as an example of an apparent non-citizen claiming to have illegally contributed to a U.S. political campaign:

-snip-

The GAI report’s authors apparently relied on Google Translator for their translation of that final line. ThinkProgress confirmed with three Norwegian speakers, including a University of North Dakota professor of Norwegian language, that the quote actually means quite the opposite.

Gaupefot’s comment claims a failed 2004 attempt to donate to John Kerry’s campaign. The correct translation of the last line is, essentially, “If I actually could have given money to Obama, I would have done it.”

-snip-

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/10/10/987681/obama-foreign-donation-scandal-hyped-by-right-wing-based-on-inaccurate-google-translation/

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GAI hasn't responded to multiple requests for comment from ThinkProgress.

The article goes on to say that it's "unclear how many of the other translations throughout the report report also relied on Google Translator — a literal translation service that is incapable of understanding nuance or context."

[Cha]

1. Thank you, ThinkProgress, for Reporting Accuracy!

highplainsdem

[RVN VET]

2. If Google said some Norwegian fathered Obama in a brothel on the moon

the GAI would have run with it. GAI doesn't give a bucket of camel snot whether the translation was accurate or not. All that matters to ant so-called "Conservative" organization is that the message is anti-Obama.

Mendacity, slovenly, unprincipled, shameless mendacity, thy name is "Conservative."

[davidpdx]

3. Yeah Google Translator really doesn't work worth a crap

I've used to to translate from English to Korean and Korean to English. It is often very inaccurate and unreliable.

[bamacrat]

9. No it doesn't.

One of my best friends is Mexican and we text back and forth (he lives in TX, I worked with him while I lived there) and sometimes we talk in Spanish for fun. Of course he is fluent and I use google translate. he calls me laughing and tells me what I said.

[Angry Dragon]

4. and when we are told Willard has 200 foreign accounts we are told

to just trust him

[chollybocker]

5. Foreign Donations... yes, but... IYAR...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadian-owned-company-donates-1-million-to-mitt-romney-superpac/article4592839/?cmpid=rss1


"A Canadian-owned company is raising eyebrows south of the border after federal election filings revealed it recently contributed $1-million to Mitt Romney’s political action committee, a donation that has set off alarm bells amid the ever-murky waters of American campaign law."

"Fairfax says ... it’s broken no laws. The decision to donate the money in August to Mr. Romney’s Restore Our Future SuperPAC, a company official added Friday, was made by a sub-committee of the company’s board of directors comprised entirely of U.S. citizens."

"Nonetheless, officials at Campaign Legal Center – a non-profit, non-partisan campaign finance watchdog – have said OdysseyRe’s donation “raises some legal red flags.”

[Downwinder]

7. We keep hearing that Corporations are people.

If they have a piece in the U.s. and a piece in Mexico does that make them any less Canadian? If a real person gets a heart transplant in India does that change their nationality?

[McCamy Taylor]

6. So, if someone claims to be foreign and to have given money, we just assume it is true?

[tclambert]

8. Romney held a fundraiser in Israel.

Sheldon Adelson (major GOP donor) makes a lot of his money in China. He owns a huge casino in Macau. Every multinational corporation makes money in multiple nations and can now, thanks to the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, spend as much as they want on our political campaigns. That's one of the major blunders of the Citizens United decision, that it allows foreign money to influence our campaigns.