Today, Everybody's a Fact Checker 143
Hugh Pickens points out an article by David Zweig at The Atlantic about the rise of fact-checking sites on the internet, and the power they give to journalists and average internet denizens to sniff out fiction parading as truth. Quoting:
"Since the beginning of the republic (not the American republic, I'm talking the Greek republic) politicians have resorted to half-truths and bald-faced lies. And while tenacious reporters and informed citizens have tracked these falsehoods over the years, until now they've lacked the interconnectivity and real-time capabilities of the Web to amplify their findings. Sites like the Washington Post's Fact-Check column and FactCheck.org, which draws hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each month, often provide fodder for public fascination with fact-checking. ... Perhaps the masses don't care about inaccuracies. Many Democrats and Republicans alike will believe what they want and ignore or disregard the truth. ... But there are enough experts within a variety of fields rabidly conversing about errors that content-creators—be they politicians, journalists, or filmmakers—are now forced to be on their toes in a way they never have been before. And that's a good thing.'"
Zweig also points out Snopes, Prochronisms, and Photoshop Disasters as useful tools for spotting errors or misrepresentations.
In Soviet Russia... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:truthiness (Score:5, Funny)
It would be nice if there were a running tally on each politician for how many times they distorted or lied about something
Oh, hell, that's an easy one to figure out - just tally up the number of times said politicians' lips move.
Re:In Soviet Russia... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nobody actually reads them (Score:4, Funny)
...it is very interesting that all the women were short slit skirts and very high heels.
I, too, find this interesting. Fox News you say? I'm going to have to check that out. Thanks!
Re:What a startlingly boring waste of time (Score:4, Funny)
Any anachronistic dialogue in Mad Men can be explained simply:
Don Draper was way ahead of his time.