On the day most of us first saw the big CBS report about the infamous “60 Minutes II” episode, you’d think journalists would be more attuned to questionable electronic documents. But they weren’t.
On Monday, I received five tsunami-related e-mails that had no business being circulated — three from journalists and two from non-journalists. The civilians can be forgiven (somewhat) for this, but in January 2005, journalists have no excuse.
They were fooled by two messages: One was a note about a boy whose parents are missing in Thailand; and the other, a photo of a giant tidal wave about to hit a Southeast Asian city. The problem: the kid’s father was found back on Dec. 28 and the other photo is just one of dozens of doctored images floating around the Web. It’s true that the Internet and TV coverage helped reunite the boy and his father, but to keep sending this out now — without questioning whether it is a true story — is ridiculous.
As I wrote after the online hoaxes and rumors around 9/11, please, please, please refer to these two resources before you forward any e-mails you aren’t sure about:
- UrbanLegends.about.com: This is where I go first to check out a suspicious e-mail. Former journalist David Emery does a really good job posting items soon after they “break” online. I like the items he’s marked “tsunami baloney.”
- Snopes.com: This site, run by Barbara and David Mikkelson, is much bigger, so what I’ve bookmarked is the What’s New page. It’s the best way to keep abreast of developments across a wide range of cultural, political, and business arenas.
My mantra: If something is too good to be true (Microsoft giving away stock to you) or too bad to be true (travelers found in tubs of ice with their kidneys stolen), it probably is. Full disclosure: I once learned my own lesson about unnecessarily forwarding messages.
This time, I am protecting the names of those journalists who forwarded these fake e-mails to me (by last count at least 20 journalists sent similar messages in the last couple of weeks). But I plan to start naming names the next time a journalist sends around a fake message. You have been warned.
Your turn: send me sites you like at poynter@sree.net (include your name, affiliation and city)
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