Well talk about this Monday, but I wanted to address it here: I do actually *research* these stories to the best of my ability. First step is sourcing. Lots of people sent me articles about this story, so I went through to try to find out where it came from. Big red flag is when all articles link back to one original article and no other. If no other site is reporting a story using original research, then its likely everybody just lazily linked to the first one, wrote a little copy about it, and sat back waiting for the clicks to roll in. AdSense 101. Next step is looking for names. I go through the story and look for complete names. Then I do a boolean search on Google; for laymen, it means you take the name, put quotation marks around it (like this: I.P. Freely), and search for it. If a storys legit, youll pull up at least three or so articles that reference the event. Then you go back and check to make sure the reporting is original, and doesnt link to anyone elses article. If you can find at least two complete, distinct original articles from different news sources about the same story, chances are the reporting was done in good faith. Finally, you check into the sources themselves. Some sites have horrible reputations and are little better than supermarket tabloids. I google the name of the site with the word fake or hoax added and see what comes up. If bad reporting is a common occurrence, then I cant trust the source. If there are no other reputable sources for a story, I usually end up dismissing the article right then and there. This one is a puzzler. No proper names, but thats because the subject wants to remain anonymous. NYMag has a very good overall reputation, but that doesnt mean someone clever isnt working very hard to hoax them. I presume the reporter involved is going on more than just the interview subjects word, but thats not 100% guaranteed. But the lack of named sources makes this one too unreliable to say, Yup, it happened, so I cant actively go with this one as if its confirmed. My Spider Sense. It tingles.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 07:24:20 +0000
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