Anonymous Report From a Presidential Town Hall Meeting in Montana – Truth! and Unproven!
Summary of eRumor:
A anonymous account of President Obama’s town hall meeting in Belgrade, Montana, a small town near Bozeman. The email criticizes many aspects of the meeting including the meeting location, ticket distribution, pre-selection of attendees and the handling of the questions from the press. It also says that thousands of dollars of lobsters were shipped into feed those in attendance and fights broke out between union members and protesters.
The Truth:
This email presents a couple of problems when trying to verify it.
One is that, like many forwarded emails, the identity of the originator is not known.
The other is that although there are some facts to check out, the email reflects the observations and opinions of the writer.
Here are the known facts: President Obama was in Belgrade, Montana on August 14, 2009 in a Town Hall Meeting to discuss health care reform. The meeting was conducted in a hangar at Gallatin Field Airport in Belgrade.
According to published reports of the meeting, there were demonstrators at the site representing both supporters and critics of the president and health care reform. An August 14, 2009 article by the Associated Press reported a “brief shoving match between supporters and critics of Obama and the Democrats’ health care proposals.” Click for article.
We’re still checking on some of the other charges in the email such as lobster being flown in for the event instead of locally-grown beef.
update 08/24/09