Historical Response #15: Ellen Brown Says We Should Respect This Bogus Lincoln Quote Because the Idea Is True.

Gary North - October 07, 2010

I have caught Ellen Brown repeatedly citing bogus quotes. She thinks that using bogus quotes is perfectly legitimate, just so long as she introduces them with these words: [Famous person, widely respected] is quoted as saying. . . ." Example:

15. A bogus Lincoln quote on men and wages

Your link quotes this:

Lincoln is quoted as saying, "The wages of men should be recognized as more important than the wages of money." [Web of Debt, p. 85]

Your link then acknowledges that 800+ references quote him as so saying, so he obviously is quoted as saying that. The sentence would be neither more nor less true if Lincoln said it. It stands on its own merits. It is true, and that was the point I was making. Money should be issued in return for wages, not to non-producing middlemen.

http://webofdebt.wordpress.com/response-to-gary-north-2

Desperate, isn't she?

Here is what I had written:

This quotation is a well-known fake. I found a reference on Wikiquotes. This took me about 60 seconds.

//www.garynorth.com/public/6924.cfm

The readers obviously should not trust this woman. She has no conception of historical scholarship. In this response, she is blind to how silly she looks. She repeatedly uses this defense of her bogus quotes: "Well, I said the person was quoted. I did not say that he actually said it. But he clearly was quoted. So, I'm off the hook, intellectually speaking."

Every one of her "is quoted as saying" quotes should be introduced by this: "has for years been falsely quoted as saying. . . ."

Think of her in front of a jury. She keeps introducing evidence with these words: "It is widely known that my client has an alibi. He could not have committed the crime."

The prosecuting attorney responds: "Counsel did not provide any testimony, taken under oath, that her client was somewhere else."

Brown faces the jury and says: "There are thousands of people who say that they heard a rumor from an unknown source that my client was somewhere else. That's good enough for me. It ought to be good enough for you."

Her client is going to jail unless the jury members are all imbeciles.

I have never come across any author like her. I hope you haven't, either.