Press lets down its guard against hoaxes as time passes, critic says
Prodded by last week’s balloon boy hoax, media critic Jack Shafer cautions reporters against being too quick to relay the stories of alleged victims. In his Press Box blog on Slate.com — an article titled “Snookered by Victims. Cynical reporters and their soft spot” — Shafer writes:
…Reporters fall sucker to fake victim stories for the same reasons readers do: There are real victims in this world, and we naturally feel for them. The purer, more innocent, younger, and more cuddly the victims, the more we ache. And the perpetrators of fake victim stories know that…
…Every time a media-swallowed lie is exposed, everybody becomes a little more skeptical. Neither reporters nor viewers would rush to learn more about, say, a Nebraska man who called 911 today to report that his 5-year-old daughter may have taken an unauthorized trip in the family blimp. But our immunity to B.S. wanes over time, leaving us vulnerable to future iterations of the balloon-boy story, and our acquired immunity to today’s B.S. doesn’t do us much good when a new, weird strain of B.S. takes over the news.
The best vaccine against B.S. victim stories is to nurture your skepticism, even if it hardens your heart a bit. If your mother says she loves you, check it out. Find documentary evidence of her love (an expensive gift, perhaps). Next, find a witness who can vouch for her love. Finally, get her to sign an affidavit proclaiming her love. But remember, she could still be faking it.
Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
You might want to investigate the rumor that Walla Walla Wa. has lost a large quantity of Flu vaccine due to the refrigeration unit going out.
At the Post Dispatch, BRIAN BURWELL is in charge of verifying that all stories are real
Report the news as it occurs and appears. A hoax starts as a hoax. You did just fine.
This works if you don’t stop, and continue to report to the end of the story. Your job is not to protect us from the nes, but to provide it.
This story was reported with the appropriate amount of skepticism from the start, in my opinion.
That story is the easy one. Keep digging on the banking and housing loan scandal and the relationshipo between large financial institutions “too big to fail” and our government.
In my opinion, Al Gore should be in prison right now. He has victimized every single American with a hoax designed to put billions into the coffers of GE and his estate. The hoax is so serious that 30,000 scientists and EVEN THE WEATHER CHANNEL has filed a major lawsuit to stop Al Gore. And naturally, since many at the Post-Dispatch believe in this hoax, this news has been hidden from public view. So in the good name of fair & balanced reporting, see what’s going on to protect you, the taxpayer, from this fraud:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6l1Cp3MYCQ&feature=player_embedded
I am an Environmentalist and I believe Anthropogenic Global Warming is a hoax.
I am an Environmentalist and I believe the Hockey Stick Graph is fraudulent.
I am an Environmentalist and I believe Al Gore is going to make Bernie Madoff look like a piker.
I am an Environmentalist and I’m amazed the P-D editors are bamboozled on Climate Change
http://www.youtube.com/v/cf-fzVH6v_U&hl=en&fs=1&
I can hardly believe this poor excuse for an excuse. The media is NOT the victim here as many of these hoaxes are being spawned by the media themselves.
Remember back in the First Gulf War:
The headline -
“Iraqis taking little tiny babies so small that they’d fit in a teacup out of respirators and placing them on Cold concrete floors”
Dateline Riyadh Saudi Arabia
Iraqis are taking little tiny babies out of respirators and placing them on cold concrete floors. It’s an outrage! These Iraqis need to be murdered in their sleep!”
Only to find out months later that the entire thing was made up by the media and the Bush I regime so that Americans would get on board with the Imperialist goals of the Federal Govt and Israel.
These hoaxes have happened far too many times to be an accident.
Gulf of Tonkin
Spanish/American War
Calvary Soldiers dressed as American Indians slaughtering whole villages
On and on and on………..
Time and time again the media has teamed up to be an agent of propaganda. As a medium you’re through! The American public has stripped you of your credentials. You have ZERO credibility left!
So Burwell is allowed to use fake quotes and libel a private citizen, and you write an article on media integrity? Wow. Just…wow.
LMAO-again with the Limbaugh defenders…it’s not like the guy (Burwell) just pulled the quote out of his %$#-the book he attributed it to has been out for quite some time and no “noise” from Rush about its inaccuracies.
Sloppy reporting? Yes-but you people make it sound as though a crime of malice was commited.
Finally-to even use the name Rush Limbaugh and link it with ANY type of integrity is laughable. Were you upset when Fox News incorrectly identified 3 separate Republican politicians involved in scandals as DEMOCRATS–yes-three times…isn’t THAT “sloppy reporting?” I imagine you called the network and voiced your disappointment, right?
Please stop trying to make Limbaugh appear as a “victim” of the “liberal media.” Fans, players, and owners spoke and made it clear they don’t want that type of “toxic asset” associated with their teams/organization.
No one is arguing that the media overall hasn’t lowered their standards-but of ALL the arguments to use to make this case, the Rush one is easily the weakest and the most insignificant. Wanna talk about failures of the media to question claims or investigate issues, let’s talk about the lead up to the Iraq War–where the media mainly served as cheerleaders and failed to ask even the most basic questions.
If you can’t have that discussion, then please go back and worship the “journalists” at Fox News and keep telling the rest of us how “honorable” and “fair” they are, okay?
At the Post Dispatch, BRIAN BURWELL is in charge of verifying that all stories are real
Lou-are you that delusional that you really think the Limbaugh “quote” is a hoax? While the quote in question cannot be verified, go Google the ones that can be…straight off of his web site!! They make most people’s stomachs turn.
So comforting to see ordinary citizens standing up for a thrice married, prescription drug addicted “family values” advocate who didn’t even attend college and yet is afforded the infallibility of the freaking pope by his adoring sheeple.
Are you a rocket scientist or a theologian? Just curious.
speaking of Hoaxes and Monsewer (typo intentional) limbaugh, check this out…it’s so delicious that it MUST be fattening.
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/93122?fp=1