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bullshit
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bullshit
calling bullshit
Happy Happiest Day of the Year Day!
Hey everyone it's the happiest goddamn day of the year! You probably read as much in your local paper? According to a scientist—a scientist!—June 20 is the happiest day of 2008. He uses a mathematical formula to prove it! With science! Look, here is the equation: O + (N x S) + Cpm/T + He. The scientician who developed this formula is named Cliff Arnall. If that name is familiar, it may be because you read him calling January 22 the saddest day of the year. In 2007. And 2006, and 2005. The story runs, twice a year, like clockwork, in newspapers across the US and the UK. All because a quack psychologist is more than happy to sign a check from some corporation and then attach his name to a press release. It's the happiest day of the year for newspaper editors desperate to fill a news hole on a summer Friday! [Mind Hacks]
bullshit?
Those Amazonian Tribespeople: Bullshit?
A rare, isolated, never-before-seen tribe photographed from a plane high above the Amazon! Dressed in red warpaint and shooting arrows at the camera! What a story! Well... you know us, we love to call bullshit on things. Just last weekend we were ready to call bullshit on the guy who made the "self-portrait" with DHL and a GPS device-equipped suitcase (honestly, people!) but then the dude called himself on it before we got the chance. (Stupid holiday weekend!) Anyway. Is this tribe shit for real? More »
mavericks
John McCain's Pretend Liberal Talk Continues to Impress Media
Everyone continues to be terribly impressed by John McCain's awesome ability to bullshit. The man is beloved by the press corps (or, at least, he used to be) because he will say any damn thing that comes to his mind, and what usually comes to his mind is whatever you want to hear. So Slate's Jacob Weisberg sat down with McCain in August of '07, when McCain's campaign was a mess and he was losing. Weisberg asked him how things were going, and McCain answered frankly that everything sucked. How Maverick-y of him not to lie! Then he said Weisberg didn't even have to read McCain's book if he didn't want to. Then McCain criticized the President and his handling of Iraq! More »
calling bullshit
5 Bullshit Stories the Whole Internet Fell For
The internet loves bullshit. While many of its denizens will brag of their skepticism, claim thousands of readers make the best fact-checkers, and say the web holds the mainstream media accountable, the fact remains that made-up bullshit still drives huge traffic, if it's marketed right. Hence, "13-year-old Steals Dad's Credit Car to Buy Hookers," a realistic-looking "news story" posted on some financial site no one had ever heard of before called monkey.co.uk. The fact that there were no sources other than this dodgy domain didn't stop the story from making the front page of Digg and Fark and racking up probably hundreds of thousands of views. Then "real" news sites began picking it up. It made the UK Sun's print edition. This tale was invented by an online marketer to boost a client's SEO ranking. And no one on Digg or anywhere else BUSTED the hoax. Nor do they bother to debunk any of the rest of the snappily headlined bullshit that makes the rounds every day. Four more examples, below. More »
newspapers
New York Times Reporters Are Secret Pageview Whores
It would be too obvious as well as unreasonable to suggest that Aron Pilhofer, the New York Times's editor for interactive news, drag himself into the 21st century. Here's a more modest objective: understanding the mindset of his own colleagues. At this week's dire Mediabistro conference, Pilhofer scorned the "ridiculous" obsession of organizations such as Gawker with the popularity of individual articles: "I think we're a long way from reporters paying attention to page views." Wot?! More »
nonsensical gossip
Gay Cowboy Dated Littlest Clinton
WTF. Wooden almost actor Jake Gyllenhaal apparently dated wooden former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, according to Star. In 1999! When he wasn't even famous! Apparently their parents knew each other. We don't buy a word of this. Why is it coming out now? Last-ditch effort to rescue Hillary Clinton's campaign with star power? Also according to this story, Chelsea Clinton thinks Jake should marry Reese Witherspoon. According to a "source." That "source" is drugs. [Star]
mavericks
John McCain: Bullshit Artist
Yesterday, Arianna Huffington revealed that John McCain told her in 2000 that he didn't vote for George W. Bush. Which we believe. We believe that he told her this, anyway. Who knows if it was true then, or now. But McCain denied it, right away. Which leads Arianna to list all the documented times he's blatantly lied about saying something so far this campaign season. A fun little list! Of course it shows why McCain felt comfortable telling Arianna Huffington that he didn't vote for Bush in 2000. And also why he's the most popular guest in Daily Show history! More »
polling
Breakfast is Political
The only adults we know who actually eat breakfast eat sensible things like bagels or bloody marys. But according to this annoying Times story on "microtrends" in political polling (one in a series of ten million identical pieces every paper in the country prints every election season), the electorate defines itself by its choice in shitty cereal. We have never heard of whatever trail mix garbage the Obama voters supposedly enjoy, while Clinton and McCain supporters' cereals of choice appear to have been devised not by polling but by a lazy observational comedian. Fiber One! Because John McCain is very very old, and old people have difficulty moving their bowels. [NYT]
video
Dayum, Hillary, Can't You Quit Lying?
Senator Hillary Clinton has been telling a heart-wrenching yarn of late about an uninsured woman who died, and lost her baby, when an Ohio hospital refused to treat her because she couldn't afford to pay a $100 fee. But... Oops! "The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured." Video, after the jump. More »
crusades
Jenny McCarthy Calls "Bullshit" On Your "Medical Science"
Larry King had noted medical expert/softcore video star Jenny McCarthy on the program last night to talk about AUTISM. Specifically, how it's caused by VACCINATING YOUR CHILDREN. This is patent conspiratorial nonsense, but it's very popular conspiratorial nonsense. Of course, in a battle between concerned, credulous parents and medical experts, the media will generally frame it as, say, Debate Rages Anew on Vaccine-Autism Link. Faced with a panel of three trained pediatricians, Ms. McCarthy shouted "BULLSHIT" twice. Then Larry put it to an internet poll. Clip after the jump! More »
bullshit detected
Bullying Article Encourages Bullying Of The 'Times'
Without fresh updates on the "constant gubernatorial sex scandal" front or the new and improved recession 2.0, the news can seem a bit slow. Maybe that is why New York Times This Land columnist (and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter) Dan Barry wrote eleven hundred words on a kid getting beaten up on the regular in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Exhaustion with scandal and financial ruin is the most charitable explanation for Barry's piece today on "A Boy the Bullies Love to Beat Up, Repeatedly." You may wonder if this article talks about the larger trend of bullying or even a "Sordid Online World." But such hope would be lost on an article about a random kid, Billy Wolfe, who gets knocked around a lot.More »
samantha power
The Other Casualties Of The "Monster" Slip
Inevitably, Barack Obama's campaign has been forced to drop the foreign-policy adviser who said that Hillary Clinton is a monster, which is fine, but to a British journalist with no discretion, which isn't. Samantha Power, the frighteningly accomplished author and academic who blabbed, resigned today. But watch out for the collateral damage. First of all, Barack should not wait for the invitation to George Clooney's villa by Lake Como; Samantha Power, who got sweaty with the Hollywood star on the basketball court, was the campaign's Clooney connection. And, second, expect the prospects of Cass Sunstein, tipped for the Supreme Court under an Obama presidency, fade a little: the distinguished law professor recently left his long-time partner and Chicago University to be with Power, according to Above The Law.Photo: Men's Vogue] More »
the terrorists win
Harvard Bows Five Times (And Once More To Be Safe) To Pressure From Muslim Students
Um, after 9/11 things got so completely awkward with Muslims. I mean, I'm not racist or anything like that at all. I love all religions. And if I saw a creepy Muslim on a plane and he kept going to the bathroom and praying, I would never even think "terrorist." God, I hope not. And by God, I'm not referring to any Judeo-Christian conception of an omniscient being, more like a general higher power that may or may not exist in possibly multiple forms. So, I'm totally with Harvard for banning men from their gym six times a week to accommodate female Muslims whose religion forbids them from exercising in front of the opposite sex. This country is all about making special adjustments to minority interest groups, not demanding that they adjust to our liberal status quo. And that's what makes me so proud to be an American. [Boston Herald]
showbiz
Scott Rudin Clearly Just Bullshitting Cindy Adams
Post gossip great-aunt Cindy Adams got the fresh dirt from Hollywood mega-producer Scott Rudin as to how, exactly, that crazy Oscar-nommed "No Country For Old Men" came to be. "Look, you never know when something great's going to come through the transom. I do movies, plays. I'm always looking. My office covers lots of material. I have people who read books and manuscripts all the time. There was no great aha! moment. This didn't come by wrapped in a big pink ribbon and ushered through with great fanfare from some superimportant VIP with a 'must read' sticker on it. The thing came to us simply. As an unpublished manuscript." Yes. A real Hollywood fairytale, optioning novels by world famous, award-winning, ICM-managed authors is. Then Rudin took a chance on a couple of complete unknowns from far away Minnesota named Joel and Ethan Coen, and the rest is history. (After the jump, for kicks, the Hollywood Reporter story announcing the NCFOM deal.) [NYP] More »
calling bullshit
How To Create An "Odd News" Hit In One Easy Step
So the story about the twins, separated at birth, who accidentally married each other years later? The sole source is a speech by a nutty pro-life former MP on the floor of the irrelevant House of Lords in the UK. And there are no names nor identifying details. There is so little to this story that CNN.com could not actually squeeze three separate, distinct "STORY HIGHLIGHT" bullet points to summarize up top. Happy Friday! If it's not a slow news day, your newsmedia shall create one. [CNN]
into the sunset
Roger Hodge Lookalike Sid Evans Triumphantly Exits New York City
Sid Evans was a fairly golden boy of New York magazine publishing: editor of Field and Stream, one-time editor of Men's Health. Blah blah blah. Hey, did you know I just read Celine's Journey To The End of the Night? (In the original, duh. Okay, with some help from the Ralph Manheim.) It's great. Now Evans—part of a wave of high-level defections from the newly-Bonnier owned Time 4 magazine group—is moving to Charleston, S.C. to edit Garden and Gun, the little magazine with the well-oiled PR machine. And so he gets a farewell from chronicler of the rich, Times dybbuk Eric Konigsberg. More »
bullshit
'San Francisco Chronicle' Brings ACTION To Journalism
Now that San Francisco Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein has finished firing a quarter of his staff, he's ready to shake things up at his troubled paper. How's he going to do it? Why, "Journalism of Action"! Tell us more!
Bronstein, who recently finished overseeing the staff cuts that ended with the departure of about 90 people from his 400-person newsroom, met on Thursday with those who will remain and directed them to take the new approach into daily news coverage. "It is more about solutions, helping them understand what they can do about things," he said. "Yes, there are murders in Bayview, and Muni is broken down. But what can you do about it?"If today's A1 headline ("Stay Out Of Bayview And Buy A Car") is any indication, folks at the Chronicle have already bought into this exciting new plan.
Bronstein Launches New 'Journalism of Action' After Big Cuts [E&P]
