By Paul Lara |
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By Paul Lara |
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Well, depending on whom you listen to, the Internet is either lifted up as the savior to human civilization, or denigrated as the tool of Satan. In fact, it's both. Very rarely does it slide to either extreme of the spectrum, though, merely wallowing in our culture's acceptance of the mediocre. At its greatest, the Internet is now helping educate patients about alternative treatments that their physicians either don't know about or aren't willing to discuss. A search of reputable web sites can yield a bonanza of helpful information. At its worst, it is a pornographic Spam-factory full of lies, deceit, temptations and fraud. Buyer beware if you're stupid enough to send cash payment to the 'company' willing to sell you a fully-loaded Pentium II 450 with monitor for a mere $500. I guess the worst offense in web-worldliness is taking everything you read on faith. While we adopt that attitude when you read your local newspaper (and you generally should), you should never take that stance with the Internet. Why? Checks and balances. Your local paper, even the monthly variety, employs fact checking, and relies on multiple sources when gathering local news. When it reprints an Associated Press article, it can rest assured that the same fact checking has already taken place. This is rarely the case on the Internet, unless you're at the site of a journalistic endeavor, such as CNN, ABC, or MSNBC, since they're editing their on-air stories for web content. An interesting consequence of the web is that spectacular stories, which may have been conveniently buried in a local edition, break out to a global view. Case in point: The amazing tale of a California investigative reporter. Journalist Gary Webb found a measure of redemption on the Net earlier this month. At the CIA's official Web site, recently declassified documents reveal that CIA operatives knowingly worked with drug dealers during the Nicaraguan civil war in the 1980s. Webb's multi-series piece, Dark Alliance, outlined how Reagan and then Bush administrations were actually bringing in cocaine into Florida as a way to finance the Nicaraguan 'Freedom Fighters'. Coke comes in; money goes down South to pay for guns and supplies. Without the Internet, this story would have died a quiet death, but it spread like the GOOD TIMES virus hoax, and was eventually picked up by the mainstream media as well. Now, after everyone turned their back on him, none other than the CIA has vindicated Webb. Recently declassified documents were posted on its web site, essentially corroborating his claims! Also interesting is how the Internet apparently makes some reporters lazy, thinking they can snag a quick story and get on to something more interesting, like kicking back with a cold one at the beach. None other than the New York Times, that bastion of factuality, printed the James Sterngold's fluffy little tidbit: "FUNNY ITEM ABOUT ASIAN MOVIE TITLES DATE: Sunday, November 15, 1998 Scott Neeson, the executive in charge of foreign distribution at Fox, said Asians prefer literal titles. But in Hong Kong, where the demand for literal descriptions has produced some jarring results. The Cantonese title for "Leaving Las Vegas" translates to "I'm Drunk and You're a Prostitute." "Field of Dreams" was "Imaginary Dead Baseball Players Live in My Cornfield." While it's an assuredly comic little piece, there's only one problem with this article; it's NOT true! The clever-sounding titles were in fact written by the hard working contributors of Chris White's Top Five List (www.topfive.com), one of the Internets most popular (and most funny) daily lists. The above titles came from the August 25, 1997 list, titled "The Top 15 Chinese Translations of English Movie Titles"! No comment yet from the New York Times on what the hell they were thinking when they printed that one. So, is the web going to make us look with a suspect eye on even our own local news outlets? I hope not. It's up to each one of us to verify what we take in, and not believe it simply because it fits in so comfortably with what we already hold dear.
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