Bad Reporting

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure you read about it already. After all, it was front page news on The Bugle today. Sources Say That Spidey Supporters Spin Lies.

Well, for all you nay-sayers out there, you're wrong. Supporters don't spin lies. In fact, I talked to Elaine Overs (she's the woman who fell from the twenty-story building when Spidey swung to her rescue), and she said that Spidey saved her...well, unless a man in tight red spandex, swinging from buildings isn't Spider-Man.

I guess what really irks me about this isn't the clear falsehoods. No--it's the bad reporting.

Did Bugle reporters bother talking to the victim? No. As quoted, from The Bugle, "The victim, Elaine Overs, 22, a theater student at NYU, declined comment."

Okay, let's say that's true for a moment. So the girl declined comment. Then why did she talk to me?

And what about this sentence for The Bugle: "Witnesses say that they saw Spider-Man grab her from mid-air, however, police say that it is more likely that Spider-Man is the culprit."

"'I think Spider-Man pushed her from the building," said Officer B. A. Ware. "Spider-Man is dangerous."

Don't they teach you anything in Libel 101? Isn't that a class that journalists have to take? Never, Never, NEVER publish anything without fact-checking. And NEVER publish anything that is knowingly false. Why not? So you don't get your butts sued for libel!

Seriously, what happened to good old journalism? What happened to the objective re-creation of reality. I thought The Daily Bugle was a little better than Fox News. After all, truth is the most fundamental principle to journalism. I mean, I understand that this whole laying off workers business and the climbing unemployment rate may have people a little short staffed--to the point where they start hiring me to freelance minimum wage. But, that's no excuse for lousy journalism. For Christ's sake, the Dow is up, people!

I guess, it just disappoints me. I mean, if we can't trust the press--the almighty Fourth Estate--for something as simple as the truth, what can we trust?

And just for the record, I would take Glenn Beck and Fox News over the The Daily Bugle any day. At least I know where they stand.