Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Good Job. Good Effort.

I leave tomorrow morning for three kid-free days in the Virginia Piedmont. Before I do, though I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this with you.

In this image, Billie Joe Armstrong hugs a reporter. Probably.
I'm a big fan of The Washington Post. It's unquestionably one of America's best newspapers, and it's consistently good across all of its sections.  Though I no longer get the daily version in physical form, I do get an actual paper on Sundays. And perusing the Sunday Post (in this order: Sports, Business, Outlook, Style, Front Page) remains one of the simple pleasures of my week.

Today, though, Ben Bradlee spun in his grave.

In a story about a campaign in England to get Green Day's 'American Idiot' to the top of the UK pop charts in advance of President* Trump's visit to London, the Post cited an article written by Billie Joe Armstrong on ClickHole. As noted by The A.V. Club, ClickHole is affiliated with the Onion, which we all know (well, most of us know, and one Post reporter definitely knows now) is a satirical website, and as such, really does print fake news. The A.V. Club goes further in assisting the Post in checking the veracity of its sources, offering the following advice:
  • "Generally, reputable news sources end in a .com or .org web address. Beware bizarrely complicated domains. For example, nbcnews.com is real, whereas nbcnews.com.co.net would be bullshit.
  • If you’re not sure if a site is real, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the “about us” link. Many faux news sites, even completely unfunny ones, say they’re “satire” in their mastheads.
  • Google is your friend. If you see an image you think might be Photoshopped, do a reverse image search. You can also search fact-checking sites like factcheck.org, politifact.com, or that old reliable, snopes.com, to verify dubious-sounding assertions or statistics.
  • ClickHole is part of the Onion family of websites, of which only the site you are reading right now deals in non-joke information".
This will NOT help the mainstream media and right-thinking America win the fake news battle. Of that I'm quite sure. 

And now, off to get drunk and try to forget the world.

23 comments:

rootsminer said...

I didn't know that the Va Piedmont was a popular destination for stag adventures.

I'm just back from the Portland west leg of my summer travels. We'll hit Portland east next month. I really dug Oregon, even if (perhaps because?) the Portlandia stereotypes are pretty spot on.

I'm a bit surprised at all of the love for 80s Clapton in the comments on TR's post. I think Clapton pretty much shot his wad with Derek and the Dominoes, and has never neared that level since. Not to say it's bad, but it's not Bell Bottom Blues.

zman said...

So that's why Lesean McCoy's nickname is Shady.

Whitney said...

Stag hunting, Rootsy

Whitney said...

Enjoyed Bill Maher’s stand-up special on HBO this month. He assails the liberals in America, a group in which he aligns himself, for a number of spot-on reasons that have helped lead us to the crapstorm in which we dwell. And the cluelessness that he laments is on display in Rob’s post.

rob said...

hunkered down at three notch’d brewing co in charlottesville daydrinking and watching soccer. times, they are good.

rootsminer said...

That sounds lovely. I made a miscalculation that I could watch the match on my second screen at work, but just figured out that it's on fox network, which I can't stream without the dreaded flash player. I'll just stick with the suboptimal audio stream of the tv broadcast, and no beer.

TR said...

No soccer on the telly for me. More important things, such as tying to keep my U8 baseball team undefeated tonight. My ace pitcher is rested. They tied us earlier. We need revenge.

rootsminer said...

Couldn't you watch the match while you're giving your ace's pitching a special rubdown? The high level competition may inspire the youngster!

Whitney said...

Is there such thing as revenge for a tie?

Whitney said...

Rob, did you intentionally mention you current daydrinking and watching sports to take our attention away from the fact you are headed to an Indigo Girls show tonight? Own it.

rootsminer said...

C'mon Whit - you know there's more than one answer to this question, and the less Rob seeks his source for some definitive, the closer he is to fine!

rob said...

i acknowledged my indigo girls plans publicly weeks ago. it’s already owned. i’m well lubricated and ready to go.

that choice of words might be unfortunate.

rootsminer said...

Also, I doubt an Indigo Girls concert is a great place for stag hunting... just sayin.

rob said...

got my first hipster tattoo props. feeling pretty good.

Whitney said...

Tattoo, indigo girls show… Rob’s going through changeeeeees...

rob said...

indigo girls crowd, as far as i can tell, is 100% white. that’s..not all that surprising. remains to be seen if they can harmonize like me and rootsy.

Dave said...

what a game . . . i'm going to go into withdrawal once the cup is over.

also, i am drinking a dry cider, graft farm flor, which has no sugar-- the yeast ate it all-- and i like it. this means i could probably hang out at an indigo girls concert.

rob said...

you are far too swarthy to hang with this crowd, dave

rootsminer said...

Rob, they're not gonna capture our magic harmonies.

Also, please give updates on the men's room situation. That was the most interesting scene at my
Indigo Girls' show. Urinals have never seemed like such a blessing...

zman said...

"The yeast ate it all" might win the coveted GTB Aside of the Year award.

Squeaky said...

Taking in a show as well tonight. Nothing as fancy as the Indigo Girls but probably a similar crowd. It's a small venue with bands you haven't heard of. That's my hipsterness without the tat.

rob said...

the urinal situation was as one might expect. the band was as good as advertised. and me thinking about what those ladies and their folk have dealt with for 30 years or more, well, i’m gonna need a bit to process that.

TR said...

My boys dominated in a 5-0 shutout win. Three pitchers threw a combined no-hitter. We are now 10-0-1. I am the Connie Mack of U8 travel baseball.