Even though I was just using it as a riff for tasteless humor, the Pat Robertson "quote" below is very telling concerning our instant gratification culture.
We have an Air America affiliate back now in Chicago, but they mix in other syndicated shows. I heard the "quote" in the car on the Ed Schultz show and the brain just started working. For those of you that know me, you know I have a weird observational sense of humor. A Google search pulls up the "quote" when I get home and I'm off and running.
Now even though the Robertson line was just an excuse to not be funny, I do feel a bit silly for posting a fake quote--and I am just sitting here typing nonsense into the ether that nobody reads. I am not a journalist charged with any professional responsibility for accuracy---even though I do try. But you do see how the "urban legend" spreads and the damage it can do.
I am not talking about Pat or Ellen now but something much more serious.
George Stephanopoulos, shamelessly trading off the Clinton connections, repeated a vicious "urban legend"/lie--when he said that "there were 2,000 buses under water" that the mayor of New Orleans could have ordered up and done a Dunkirk-like evacuation of the poor and helpless. It may have come from a column by Wesley Pruden in the Washington Times (insert your own joke here) that may have played off a number suggested in several sources that 2,000 buses would be NEEDED to evacuate (simple math, lots of people=lots of buses). New Orleans though owned about 250 functional buses (mediamatters.org).
The "rumor" quickly spread, from right-wing blogs to Hannity on Fox, and then all over the press. So there you see urban legends, truth and journalistic ethics.
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2 comments:
I'm serving notice that at least SOMEONE reads this.
Thanks Khyle!
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