Fact-Checking Challenged Journalists Told To Use Google And Bloggers For Help

from the let-them-do-the-analysis-for-you dept

An amusing article in the Guardian about the variety of spoof websites that have taken in journalists over the past few years (they miss out on my own personal spoof, Geek Girl Services, which fooled folks at TechTV). The writer points out that, now that fact checking has gone the way of the dinosaur, lazy journalists might want to discover two quick tools that could help them avoid looking like a fool: Google and bloggers. He suggests that any time you come across a site that seems too crazy to be real, before writing up your "you won't believe what you find on the internet..." story, go to Google and search around to see what the bloggers say about it - since they're often quick to sniff out the fact that it's fake. In other words, let the bloggers be your (free) fact checkers. There's also at least one small thing in the article itself that isn't true, and I'm assuming he's put it there on purpose to try to fool a few more journalists, but I'll leave that for you to figure out yourself.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Aug 2003 @ 12:06pm

    No Subject Given

    LOL indeed

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Mike, 11 Aug 2003 @ 12:17pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    Oh sure, ruin it for everyone. ;)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Ed Halley, 11 Aug 2003 @ 1:29pm

    +hoax

    To be more specific, if you're fact-checking, the keywords 'hoax' and 'legend' are very effective.

    My mother-in-law asks me about EVERY con-job with the same naive question, "is this real?" No matter how much I explain the key facets of a hoax, she continues to ask me. I think it's just a conversational crutch. If it were her job though, google +hoax is almost all she'd need.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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