Forget The Wii Porn Menace; Perhaps We Should Be Worried About Reporters Getting Their Facts Wrong
from the just-saying dept
Remember the sensationalistic story from earlier this week about great big Wii porn menace? The one that seemed somewhat disconnected from, well, reality? Rick Klau read the story here and decided to investigate a little bit. In the story, the reporter claims that kids are already using their Wiis for porn, saying: "Young kids get it. In a blog, one child boasted, "The first thing I thought of when I downloaded the Wii browser was also porn." That made Rick a little curious, since the sourcing was entirely anonymous. He went searching through the various blog search engines to find the "one child" who made that "boast." What he found was that it wasn't in a blog post, but in a comment on the gaming blog Kotaku... and that the commenter is pretty clearly not a kid. In fact, his actual comment was taken out of context. What he said was: "Like any red blooded American male ages 18-45, the first thing I thought of when I downloaded the Wii browser was also porn." In other words, he's not a child at all, and actually said it in the quote -- but that didn't fit the reporter's story, so she apparently left it out. Furthermore, that sentence was immediately followed up with a comment about the Wii filters (which the reporter claimed didn't exist) and a joke. The line about the porn was a setup to the joke. So, just about everything about it was wrong. The comment wasn't from a kid. It wasn't serious. And, most importantly, the comment pointed out that there were Nintendo filters, which the reporter claims don't exist. I have to admit that I'm a lot less worried about kids surfing porn with their Wiis than I am about the training of some reporters these days.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Reader Comments
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I think...
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Wii webbrowsing sucks
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Bravo!
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Down with reportes! Down with the news!
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Re:
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Oops
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Re: Oops
It was annoying at first, now it's just tiring. Why don't we ban cars? They help transport pedophiles to rendezvous's with under-age kids. Phones will have to go too, they're far too easy for a child to use and really, there's no security on who they can talk to, they just have to dial a number...... Lips, you can talk with lips. And loose ones sink ships.... Also, any kind of viewing apparatus, like eyes. Definitely a bad thing.....
In fact - let's just kill everyone over 13 now and save us all the trouble.
We have to PROTECT THE CHILDREN!
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Re: Oops
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Re: Re: Oops
Oh, shit. We'll have to get rid of anything funny now too I suppose.
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I knew I heard about this before
But I'd have to say, I never did think Wii + Browser = porn. not until the first article came out. So, if I was a parent, I don't know if I would have thought to block anything. Even though, I wouldn't blame the Wii in any way that would have been my mistake.
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" Game console can be porn gateway
11:20 AM CST on Tuesday, January 9, 2007
By SHELLY SLATER / WFAA-TV"
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by the way I have a PS3 and Wii so I'm not flaming the Wii. I actually like it alot, but it's stricly for gaming and nothing else.
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Next step
You can take things further if you want. Reporters are not allowed to make things up and their reputations can be sullied for life if you're really feeling vindictive. No major paper will hire anyone who does as bad a job as that - which leaves the Penny Tattler and World News.
Was it really so awful that you never want the reporter to write ever again? If not, stick with the paper in question plus the major news sources.
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Journalists just can't resist sensationalism so what do you expect.
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Saying that we must still keep an eye out on our children as the web does make it easy for children too see things they should not and with the web getting easier to access on the move this will be a harder and harder job.
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Inanity
If you want to surf the web A.C., , spend your PS3 money on a PC.
Oh, I know...then you wouldn't have a Blu-Ray player. The horror.
"I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have a Blu-Ray player to watch all 125 movies currently available."
You fanboyz jump at any opportunity (even at the peril of going off on some far tangent), to extol the virtues of the PS3, even if that means making sure everyone knows the PS3 can surf porn better and easier than the Wii.
Do you fanboyz always quake and piss yourselves like a nervous Chihuahua when someone suggests there's something the PS3 can't do better?!
Now go outside and play; the grownups are talking.
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Re: Inanity
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Who
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Report
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Re: Report
By SHELLY SLATER / WFAA-TV
Send this article into the complaint area of the following:
http://www.wfaa.com/customerservice/helpcenter.jsp
Looks like SHELLY SLATER will have some explaining to do to her boss.
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Re: Re: Report
sslater@wfaa.com
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All Posters
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Re: my bad!
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All Posters by Wolf0579
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!
I can't stop !!!!!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
What a big shame!!!!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha haHa ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
This shamen reporter are commited to create some problem to nintendo????? HHHHoooooowwwww NNNNoooooo!!!
I thin k I'll buy on Wii box in order to see some XXX sites - awesome!!! - HIPE !!!!!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha haHa ha ha ha ha haHa ha ha ha ha ha!!!!
I can't breath!! :)
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training?
Any kid looking for p0rn on the wii browser is not going to made less innocent by finding it...probably just happier.
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reporter
nah.. that kind of stuff dont happen, its fake
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Re: reporter
Also, the saddest part of this is it isn't front page material. Its a little blurb on the website that most likely didn't even make it into print. It was written by someone so low on the totem pole that they didn't get their name on the byline. These are the same pathetic rumor mongers in grade school who were always looking to weasel some bit of dirt so they can spread it around and have people pay attention to them for a while. These reporters will be pushing paper around a desk for the rest of their lives and maybe one or two will ever have their name in print. The author of this particular article is not one of them.
Sensationalism is an act of desperation, either to get noticed or stay on top. There are too many idiots who pay attention to it for people to stop trying, so we might as well ridicule these small fractions of a reporter (thanks Aaron) until they shut up. Go tell their boss to fire whoever worked on this article.
http://www.wfaa.com/customerservice/HelpCenter.do
Watch Digg and BoingBoing and Fark and whatever - but instead of just reading the articles and then each other's posts, hold these people accountable before they're allowed to do any more damage.
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Inanity
What is it with everyone posting comments to bash on people when they don't really read any of the posts?
He stated he owned both of the Wii and PS3, he also mentioned that he could hook up a mouse and keyboard to the PS3, which WOULD make it easier to browse the internet.
If people want to use their gaming systems to browse the internet, then so be it. I don't understand why everyone gets so upset when others decide to do something outside of the way YOU would normally do things.
Give it all a rest.
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Reporters' training
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At the expense of the truth
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Re: At the expense of the truth
It's not just reporting either. The reasons for the war in Iraq were transparently ridiculous, but the same public who blindly ignored them are now equally as happy because some obscure victory (killing one man) has been gained.
Until people start to question EVERYTHING they are told, there will be no change. And no progress.
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p.s. I'm posting from my Wii
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hello friends
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