Journalism is dying, As is any Semblance of FACT CHECKING

http://thedailywh.at/post/1144154306/psa-of-the-day-the-mainstream-media-was-duped

Click above for Image (must see, great fake)

I totally saw this all over the news. The pic that is. This happens so often I can't keep track, be it photos, quotes, etc... Recently a pic of some Iraq bombing mistakenly put a picture from a movie or was it an event from 10 years ago? Sent in by a hoaxster, taken for real coverage. Or them stealing stories from blogs and message boards and reporting them with no research or fact checking.

PSA of the Day: The mainstream media was duped into thinking an impressive tornado shot from 1976 posted by some dude on Twitter was actually taken during this week’s NYC storm. Now, it seems, we have another hoax on our hands, courtesy of yet another Twitterer.

I don’t want to wax poetic about the importance of verification in the age of citizen journalists, but it is kind of a big deal. During the Discovery Channel hostage situation, a photo that made the rounds claimed to be of the gunman but was actually of a police officer. That photo could quite easily have put the wrong man’s life in jeopardy.

Obviously, the doctored image above doesn’t endanger anyone’s life, but in a world where photogs are winning awards with hoaxes, it couldn’t hurt to be more careful.