Who Can Really Say?

Bullshit Meters

Yesterday the AP fell hook, line, and sinker for a bit from a militant Islamic website saying that an American soldier, one "John Adams", had been captured and would soon be beheaded. Similar to the CBS/Dan Rather/Bush Nat. Guard memo story, bullshit meters shortly flew off the scale in the blogosphere (I still think that word is pretentious and sounds made up). The bullshit was in the picture accompanying the story -- that of an American soldier sitting on the floor, with a gun pointed at his head. Go on, click and the link and scroll -- yep -- that's the picture!

Lot's of fun ensued.

I think bullshit meter pretty well describes a strength blogs have over the mainstream press. Blogs aren't fact checked and don't have editors, it is said, and blah blah blah, and therefore they're supposed to be dangerous and unreliable. But among other things, when the AP falls for such an obvious hoax, blogs allow hundreds of thousands if not millions of bullshit meters to interact, compare readings, and reach a consensus about certain factual evidence (the authenticity of documents or photos, for example) that far exceeds, apparently, that of the mainstream press.

Meanwhile, the Guardian, a day later, reported the story, long after it had been debunked. Go figure.

UPDATE: John Adams has been freed.

Posted by Peter at February 2, 2005 08:08 PM