Quote of the Day – Andrew Malcolm Edition
November 15, 2008 by William K. Wolfrum
“I actually contacted the Times’ Readers representative department, and while they were very pleasant and promised to address the issue with Mr. Malcolm, I’d be pretty much willing to bet that Mr. Malcolm – as a political “expert” – really could care less. He doesn’t have to.
And the good part for Malcolm is that “Marty” will be coming up with TONS of stuff like this over the next three months. Sadly, his attempt to make a big deal about the Jonas Brothers failed, but he connected on this Blackstone/Hilton/McCain invention.
As no type of retraction or admission of error is likely to be forthcoming, I must say I look forward to Mr. Malcolm continuing to do his part in enhancing Abrad2345′s career by using “Marty” as a source often.”
–William K. Wolfrum on Andrew Malcolm’s L.A. Times blog on Aug. 6. Yesterday, Malcolm finally took credit for being hoaxed, but did so only in a strange post that tried to humorously shame Eisenstadt for fooling him.
–WKW
Blogs and forums have kind of become my hobby, as sad as that is to admit. I am no longer surprised at how often people make claims and then either (1) don’t provide a source whatsoever (2) cite something or someone that lacks any credibility or, most hilariously, (3) cite an article that not only does not support their claim but, if you read it carefully, refutes their claim.
However, regular ol’ net dweebs like myself making these kind of mistakes is understandable. People are people. But people who, for a living, pass on information to all the rest of us, should not make these types of mistakes. Occasionally goofing up is one thing, but a pattern has emerged to where this type of thing has become very common.
And that’s why it is so important not to accept the buzz on face. The buzz buzzes from one keyboard to another and people accept it as truth without digging a little.
Here’s a recent example I came across, although since it’s more like propaganda I’m not sure it qualifies. But this guy at the Washington Times writes this long op-ed about the U.S. Treasury Department allegedly implementing Sharia law in regard to banking.
Just a little bit of digging and I find that the only other people reporting this is right wing propaganda sites and Pat Robertson’s ‘news’ agency CBN. A little bit more digging and I find that this breaking ‘news’ has been breaking since at least 2002 and, apparently, the Treasury Department holds these training sessions occasionally for their employees. Is it a fair assumption that Treasury Department employees conduct business in Muslim countries and may need to understand how these countries conduct business?
Anyway, the point is that with this op-ed, the Washington Times is making a claim that there is no difference between what they print and what is reported by newsmax, worldnetdaily, drudgereport, or me for that matter.
The old saying that you can’t believe everything you read is true, but it would be nice to be able to put a little faith in the traditional, established news media.
[...] Admitting a mistake is tough, luckily we all have plenty of people out there that will point out our errors … Andrew Malcolm: Factcheck.org alters ‘not true’ charge about U.S. guns … Don’t blame Malcolm for being amazed about this. He lives in a world where you never, ever admit you’re wrong, regardless of how wrong you are. [...]