You can't believe everything you read!

Back in the olden days, information came in the form of daily and weekly newspapers, hourly radio newscasts, the nightly news on one of the 2 or 3 TV stations you could pick up with your antenna, or in letters that the Post Office delivered in a week or so.  There was plenty of time to digest and analyze the information you received and make sure you had the story right before it got passed on.  Today, with the advent of 24 hour news networks and the internet, our society is bombarded with information from all sides.  

Being a bit of a news junkie, I find this a very good development.  In high school I was the guy who kicked ass when we played "Current Events", a Jeopardy style game using questions ripped from that week's headlines.  Mr. Bob Kuntz, my junior year U.S. History teacher at Plentywood, MT High School, used to make me play against the rest of the class and then cheat for the other side.  My edge came because I worked after school at KATQ AM & FM and read the Associated Press wire during each shift, keeping names and events current in my mind.  

Enough of my ego inflating trip down memory lane, back to the present day.  I'm amazed by what otherwise intelligent people will pass along as "news and information".  It's become so easy, you get an e-mail from someone you know detailing the latest assault on your favorite hot button issue and a simple click on the Forward icon and the e-mail is passed along to everyone in your address book.  

I don't have a problem with people sharing their fervor for an issue, but please people, do some basic fact checking before you resend that e-mail.  One item that comes to mind as I'm writing this is an assertion that "In God We Trust" was being left off the newest $1 U.S. coins that were minted.  I realize that not many people are using these coins, I've yet to get one in change, but all it took for me to determine this was not the case was to search the U.S. Mint's website where I found this to be UNTRUE.  The phrase is inscribed on the edge of the coin, something that had never been done before, but definitely not leaving it off the coin.  

Other commonly forwarded missives can be researched easily enough.  Simply Google the opening line or some other significant part of the e-mail and see what comes back.  Or go to the website called Snopes.  This way, before you alarm everyone you know about the latest gang initiation rituals or where a famous fast food restaurant is purchasing their beef, you'll at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the information you're sending along is reasonably accurate.  

There's an interesting article online that I came across today regarding Twitter and it's ability to disseminate information quickly.  Unfortunately, when it comes to one of today's hottest headlines, Swine Flu, Twitter is not exactly getting a passing mark.  Check out the article by Evgeny Morozov at Neteffect.ForeignPolicy.com.  It makes for some interesting reading.