Internet Rumor Checkers

(from "All the News That's Fit to Post. Or Is It?: Quality Information and the Social Web," Searcher, June 2011, pp. 20-28. http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jun11/Herther.shtml)

Barbara and David Mikkelson are on a mission. They created and now maintain Snopes, one of the premier sites tracking internet rumors today. Profiled in a New York Times article (“Debunkers of Fictions Sift the Net,” April 4, 2010 [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/technology/05snopes.html]), the seeming futility of their mission was well-summarized in this quote by Barbara Mikkelson: “Well, we have to get out there and defend the truth. When you’re looking at truth versus gossip, truth doesn’t stand a chance.”
That assessment may be overly grim. Today there are many websites dedicated to tracking down the truth behind rumors, gossip, hoaxes, and urban legends. Here are a few of the best:

FactCheck.org

http://www.factcheck.org
A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, FactCheck.org allows you to track rumors or to “Ask FactCheck” to get the low-down on rumors.

PolitiFact.com

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter
Winner of a Pulitzer in 2009, the site covers the web with news, articles, and a “Truth-O-Meter” to check rumors as they arrive.

Fact Checker (The Washington Post)

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker
From Michael Dobbs, this site ended with the November 2008 elections. The site used a rating system of 0-5 Pinocchios to rank the truthfulness of statements made during the Obama/McCain campaign.

Snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com
Subtitled “rumor has it,” this site covers the waterfront from the arts to business to religion to politics.

Columbia Journalism Review (CJR)

http://www.cjr.org/index.php
With the subtitle of “strong press, strong democracy,” CJR provides coverage of events, rumors, and other aspects of discourse in our wired life.

MediaMatters

http://mediamatters.org/tags/issues
This site covers the media, major personalities, and programs, “documenting conservative misinformation throughout the media.” You can search or browse by subject area.

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Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I wish I could give this 3.5 stars. I liked it too much to give it three, but not quite enough for four. So I'm rounding up.

I loved the first 2/3 of this book. The story of Karou, her life with the chimaera, her meeting with Akiva, were all very good. I didn't need allllll of the information about Madrigal, though. I think that part could have been greatly trimmed down yet still give us the information we needed. I honestly don't know why I would read the next book, as there's nothing more I feel I need to know.

As my friend, Cyndy mentioned in her review, this isn't really a YA book. It feels like the main character was shoehorned into being a 17 year old, when there was NOTHING in her life that fit that of a typical 17 year old. She lived on her own, traveled around the world on errands for Brimstone, and was in the equivalent of a fine-arts college program. It was like the publisher or someone said, "Hey, YA is hot now! Let's make the heroine a teen!" and nothing else about her was changed.



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Review: The God Delusion

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book is Richard Dawkins' argument against the existence of any sort of divine being that runs the world. While getting deeper at times than I was comfortable following (quantum physics and philosophical arguments sometimes do that to me), I found it very interesting, and it addressed many of the questions raised by the religious when they're confronted with Atheists.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when religious people say that one can't have morals if one isn't religious. Dawkins does a splendid job of debunking that idea, and I recommend the book for that section alone.

I also loved his use of "American Taliban" to describe American fundamentalist religions. I know he didn't coin the term, but this was the first time I'd heard it, and I will be using it from now on.

I'm sure this book would horrify and anger many of the faithful. However, if you are open-minded and willing to listen, this book opens a whole world.



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Mini-review: God is Not Great

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Good book, hitting many of the same points as Dawkins in "The God Delusion," but in a less vitriolic manner.



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Review: Buffalo Gal

Buffalo Gal by Laura Pedersen

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I couldn't finish this book. I tried, but, really, life's too short to waste it on books that don't keep you interested.

In the half of the book that I read, I got the feeling of nothing more than "man, this is meandering." She'd start a chapter talking about one thing, and two pages later be on a completely different topic, and you have no idea how or why she made the transition. As a friend emailed me while she was reading, "Wow, does she ever need an editor!"

Yes, it had some funny things about living in Buffalo, but it also fed into the stereotypes. Although maybe they weren't stereotypes in the 70s. Buffalo doesn't spend its entire winter buried in snow. Yes, winters are long, but we're not walking uphill in thigh-high snow to and from school every day. I understand the use of hyperbole. There was too much of it in this book. Also, much of the book (that I read) discussed things that were of national import (Vietnam War, energy crisis, etc.) and not particular to Buffalo. I didn't feel that needed to be in the book. There are others that cover those topics much better.

So, read this book if you want to have a giggle over some Buffalo-isms, but not if you enjoy a cogent narrative.





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