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Is our media today too easily contrived? A new book argues as much, "Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator" by Brian Holiday. To wit:
Holiday created fake personas and sent fake scoops to blogs, then wrote fake comments and provided fake traffic time and time again. This resulted in the scoops becoming real, the article being republished across the world, and history changed to the way that suited him and his clients (he'd use these articles as citations to prove the fake news in Wikipedia).
[...]
The way the media is organized today is bad, he argues, because it no longer cares for quality journalism. Sources aren't checked. Facts are dubious guesses at best. Mistakes are never corrected. No, the media cares more for gossip and things that make readers emotionally charged -- as that's what makes us share stuff.
I'm a little skeptical that we are this bad off. Let it be known: Mr. Holiday is all of twenty-five years of age. I can see how Amazon ratings might be distorted, and maybe a matter of some triviality might be buzzed up, such as celebrity news, and no doubt the blogosphere can be caught up in its own dreamscape, but we have some giants in the media game with some heavy-hitters. I am sure that our media is not infallible, but I don't think we are a house of cards. And why believe Holiday? He's a liar.
(Source: Thomas Church at Huffington Post)
Holiday created fake personas and sent fake scoops to blogs, then wrote fake comments and provided fake traffic time and time again. This resulted in the scoops becoming real, the article being republished across the world, and history changed to the way that suited him and his clients (he'd use these articles as citations to prove the fake news in Wikipedia).
[...]
The way the media is organized today is bad, he argues, because it no longer cares for quality journalism. Sources aren't checked. Facts are dubious guesses at best. Mistakes are never corrected. No, the media cares more for gossip and things that make readers emotionally charged -- as that's what makes us share stuff.
I'm a little skeptical that we are this bad off. Let it be known: Mr. Holiday is all of twenty-five years of age. I can see how Amazon ratings might be distorted, and maybe a matter of some triviality might be buzzed up, such as celebrity news, and no doubt the blogosphere can be caught up in its own dreamscape, but we have some giants in the media game with some heavy-hitters. I am sure that our media is not infallible, but I don't think we are a house of cards. And why believe Holiday? He's a liar.
(Source: Thomas Church at Huffington Post)
