By now, you've probably heard about President Obama's interview on uber-popular user generated content site Reddit last week.
The crowd-sourced Q & A, known as an AMA (Ask Me Anything), brought in a record numbers of visitors and took down the "front page of the Internet."
But, now, there seems to be some doubt about one of the users whose question was one of the 10 answered by the President.
The over-analysis of the Obama AMA began the same day POTUS posted. Most of the "Internet-detective work" has been regulated to the Libertarian sub-reddit and focused on a specific user. User "hmlee," who claimed to be an unemployed law school graduate, asked the President for advice on encouraging fellow young people to vote for him this November and what to hope for in his possible second term.
Nice question, though kind of a softball to appeal to youth voters. And the President gave a decent answer. So what's the problem? Users quickly pointed out that hmlee created his/her account only minutes after the AMA started, it was one the longest questions with a paragraph intro, and the user had commented elsewhere on being an intern for the Department of Justice. Hmm ... seems suspicious to us.
So, who is hmlee?
Well, it turns out she's Hilary Lee, who came forward when questions about her "authenticity" cropped up. Hilary explains that she created the new account because she was on a friend's computer and couldn't remember her reddit password. She admits to writing her question beforehand and pasting it into the AMA and that she's an Obama supporter. But does she work for the campaign? "I wish it were true because I could still use a job," she told a reporter.
Well, that all seems pretty plausible to us.
But, like most conspiracy theories, the "truth" won't kill it.
Video: Jason Aldean - "Truth"
