In the one thing the whole Trayvon Martin story has made crystal clear is how quickly misinformation can spread in the Information Age and once it’s out there, it’s almost impossible to eradicate.
There are two types of misinformation. There are honest errors and there are flat out lies and I’ve seen both. Part of the problem is people are too willing to accept information at face value. That’s especially true if the information supports a preconceived notion or opinion.
We seriously need to get back to being a lot more careful about insuring information is accurate before we publish it. And that’s goes quadruple for the news media including radio, television, print and internet.
Another problem I see more and more are sensational headlines that don’t come close to accurately reflecting the contents of the story. Some of these are harmless but others aren’t and they leave readers that just see the headline with the completely wrong impression.
The headline crap is especially an issue on-line. Yahoo is one of the worst offenders but MSN and others aren’t far behind.
People are making important decisions based upon totally bogus data. We need to remain skeptical and if what you're reading proves you were right all along, then you better be especially skeptical.
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