Torontoist's Metrocide series did some digging on murder and crime stats in Toronto to get to the bottom of whether T.O. is a "safe" city or not. Must read through (and should have posted it last week).
Today, they call out the Toronto Sun for another of its horrible headlines and come up with a fear mongering checklist.
The comments are a good read... mostly.
Via Boingboing and Kotaku comes this job posting for someone to... well, I'll just copy it here.
"Did computer games make you turn to a life of crime?
Magazines / newspapers : Did computer games make you turn to a life of crime?
Listing no. 63806 - All regions, UK
A national newspaper wants your story and will pay hundreds of pounds to the right person.
Write a few lines about how computer games turned you to crime and if it's something we like, we'll call you straight back.
Payment details: paid role
Created: 27 March 2008
Applications accepted for at least another month
Application criteria: Males & Females aged 0 to 60 from UK"
Is this standard practice for finding sources over there? I mean, TALENT AGENCIES? It kinda smacks of fabrication. Hell, there's no "kinda" about it. This website also advertises TV and radio writing gigs. It's pathetic.
Given that many media outlets (both in Europe and here) seem to have an agenda against videogames and their satanic, baby-eating makers, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
As Joel Johnson posted, I hope someone managed to plant a whopper in the press, track the story outwards, and then reveal its all a lie. Normally I'd hate to see that happen, but if a paper is going to a TALENT AGENCY (is there a bigger form of caps lock?), I say all bets are off. You get what's coming to you.
NYT - British papers apologize to McCann's for murder allegations.
Adverganza - This ad blog posted what it calls the Iliad of corrections.
This link to DB Scott's blog has a number of interesting links about fact-checking. Glad to see that Cynthia Brouse has finally published her fact-checking text. I interviewed her once for an article I wrote on the subject for Masthead.
Also note the links to discussions on the future of fact-checking (which my article happened to be about).
