So I was carousing Yahoo's news site today and found quite a headline: Finally, I though, something to distract me from the revolution in the middle-east. But not all was as it seemed. While the story was very sensational, and even laid out the CIA/USA motivation for turning our own weapons against ourselves, it wasn't true. Turns out, Yahoo didn't do its homework. I did a little foot work and found another report on the same topic, but this one gave the source for the story (Yahoo does not) as one "Sorcha Faal". "Sorcha" runs a webpage that reports on all the crazy **** that the USA/West is up to these days. Things that FOX news and CNN skip over like: "US President Orders Military To Begin Jailing All Civilian Protestors To War" "Russia, China Order Forces To Highest Alert As US Forces Mass On Iranian Border" "Australia To Imprison All Muslims In Concentration Camps" and one of my favorites: "Massive ULF 'Blast' Detected In US Bridge Collapse Catastrophe" Turns out that the "Sorcha Faal" is a pen name for David Booth, who like to plagiarize and solicit people for money. He also maintains a number of sensational and extremist websites, chock-full of B.S. news. So how is it that Yahoo news missed this? Do they not check [their own] sources? Did it not seem odd to them that NO ONE was running this story aside from "Whatdoesitmean.com"? Why did they even think that site was a legitimate information source? All of this combines to make me really question the way we, as a culture, receive information. I'll admit I was a bit shocked and ready to run for the hills when I read the news. If I hadn't been willing to vet the story, I would have continued to propagate the lie. What is everyone's opinion on all this?
The everlasting quest for increased profit leads media outlets to disregard actual reporting standards and opt for whatever will garner the most readers. But it's not as bad as Fox posting an article about President Obama from the Onion thinking it was real.
Or the people who thought Sarah Palin saying "I can see Russia from my house!" was real. I mean, I'm not a rabid fan of hers or anything, but -- Tina Fey, people, get your facts right.
This is almost as bad as people taking anything ever published by Ayn Rand as seriously viable economics/politics... Oh, wait...
I don't even think of Yahoo as a news source, just mail. I listen to npr, so if I do not hear it there, I don't believe....so to speak.
http://www.thewrap.com/television/article/fox-news-site-posts-satiricial-onion-obama-story-amid-real-news-22840 So sad, yet so true.
Fox is always epic fail. We are talking about a Murdoch line product afterall. Always unreliable and outdone by all the other sources.
I get really pissed when Fox says they're "fair and balanced," but then prop up establishment toe-the-party-line Republicans like Huckabee, Bush etc (whom I'm not a fan of) and dismiss people like Ron Paul and Gary Johnson. The other media outlets -- CNN, etc -- are often just as bad if not worse when introducing bias. I also hate reading news articles online where the reporter continuously interjects his/her own political opinions into the article that's supposed to be a factual, hard-news report. When you're in college to be a journalist/reporter, the one thing they hit you (or us at least) over the head with again and again is to be objective and keep your own damn opinions out of the news. The journalists should never inject themselves into a story, yet it's rare to find a story where they *don't.* Sabreur, what are you referencing? As I recall, no one suggested using Rand's work as official White House guidelines. (Although personally, I do not find anything with Marxist, Machiavellian or Keynesian leanings credible, but people use these as the basis of politics all the time.)
I enjoy ridiculing people with ridiculous political beliefs. People like Ayn Rand NOTE: I don't really enjoy ridiculing people like Ayn Rand. I just find them baffling.
I saw that article on Yahoo a couple days ago, then when I saw your post I searched for the connection to Sorcha Fall but couldn't find any. Care to share?
