DailyDirt: Fact-Checking Is Hard...
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Journalism is a tough business, and it's not getting any easier. Reporters need to be more skeptical than ever (especially around April Fool's day) and keep an eye out for pranks or stories that sound too good to be true (or are obvious publicity stunts). Sometimes there's a fine line between what's newsworthy and what's simply entertaining, but here are a few stories that might have needed a more critical editor.- Husband and wife team Gary di Silvestri and Angelica Morrone paid their way into the Sochi Olympics. The couple deposited some funds into a Dominica bank to get legitimate citizenship, and then they formed a ski team to represent the Caribbean island. The press covered their biographies just like any other Olympians (but maybe that shouldn't have happened). [url]
- Local news stations are always looking out for heart-warming human interest stories, but perhaps they should screen people who claim to be yo-yo masters a bit more rigorously. Andy Kaufman would be amused by this hoax. [url]
- Just about every morning news show does some kind of cooking segment, especially around the holidays when people are looking for recipe ideas for family gatherings. Unfortunately, the folks as WSAW-TV have pulled this video from Youtube, but you might still be able to find it to try the awful recipes. [url]
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.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: angelica morrone, chef, gary di silvestri, hoax, prank, publicity stunt, sochi olympics, yo-yo master
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
lol did they really drink that stuff?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]