There is news brewing about a judge in Montana that forwarded a joke about Obama. The first line of the email says this,

"Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine."

This line looks like something that is usually forwarded with these types of emails, but it is insinuated that he added those lines. The wording of those sentences looks all too familiar, and it is fair to say they might have been forwarded with the rest of the content rather than added by the judge. This does not excuse the behavior of course, but the representation as it stands is a bit irresponsible.

If he authored the line above before forwarding the email, they suggest a malicious tone that could be missing had he not added those words. If he added the remarks, he is despicable and stupid. If he forwarded it unaltered, it is simple stupidity. It is discouraging that news outlets will let the reporting stand as is, rather than remark on the distinction I describe above.