Oregon State receives bribe - not true

Email rumor claims Oregon State University was bribed with federal stimulus money to halt the firing of basketball coach Craig Robinson, who happens to be Michelle Obama's brother.

Description: Forwarded email
Circulating since: March 2010
Status: False

Email example contributed by Jessica G., March 8, 2010:

FW: stimulus jobs...

Some have said that the stimulus hasn't saved any jobs, but here is a case where at least one job was saved.

According to an unnamed source, Oregon State University Athletic Director Bob DeCarolis was considering firing their basketball coach, Craig Robinson, after an 8-11 start (2-5 in the Pac 10 conference).

When word of this reached Washington , Undersecretary of Education Martha Kanter was dispatched to Corvallis with $17 million in stimulus money for the university. The source now says that Craig Robinson's job is safe for this year.

For the record, Coach Robinson just happens to be Michelle Obama's Brother.

Analysis: While it's true that Oregon State University head basketball coach Craig Robinson is Michelle Obama's brother, virtually everything else in this message is false.

Far from having his job on the chopping block, Robinson's six-year coaching contract with OSU was recently extended through 2016 (an additional two years), and it had nothing to do with federal stimulus grants, according to Assistant OSU Athletic Director Steve Fenk. "For the record," he said in an email, "Craig Robinson has coached Oregon State to its best back-to-back seasons since the early 1990s."

Furthermore, though Oregon State has received a total of over $26,000,000 in federal stimulus grants to date — at least half of it in 2009 — there is no record of Department of Education Under Secretary Martha Kanter (or any other government official) being "dispatched to Corvallis with $17,000,000 in stimulus money."

When I asked OSU Director of Athletics Bob De Carolis to comment on this rumor — which is as much a smear against him as it is against Coach Robinson and the Obama administration — his response was succinct: "There is absolutely no truth to any of this, period."

Note from the right jack: "This could happen" was mentioned frequently by Democrats when they were in control of Congress or the White House, when seeking to throw mud at Republicans. Then accusations like this were followed by "the seriousness of the allegation signals that this needs to be investigated." Well folks, that's politics, which helps explain why politicians have such low approval ratings.

However, the other rumors of bribes by Democrats [unions, SIEU, LA NE NV etc etc etc] to get Obama Health Care Change passed are true. In fact, I think "the right jack" and Fox News are the only ones not to have receive a bribe.