News articles

Phil’s got a complaint about an article he was reading. Some of it wasn’t accurate:

But what really gores my ox is the awareness that, since every news article I read about something I actually know is completely, utterly, absolutely, factually, wrong, I have to assume that all the ones I read about things I don’t know are just as wrong. Maybe they get eight out of ten facts in the article right. How do I know which eight, or more importantly, which two?



It’s something to remember when you read news accounts, and it reminds me that a few weeks ago Angela pointed out a little feature story about the local place where I regularly get my hair cut. It was just a little puff piece and it was interesting to read the interview with the owner of the shop, but how much time, since you were already doing the interview, could it have taken to get a few facts straight? The article in question had the wrong number of people working there, and claimed that the women who cuts my hair all the time, only does women’s hair. (Or maybe I should be offended by the insinuation? *L*)

Just because a “journalist” wrote it, doesn’t mean it’s accurate.

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