Reasons never to believe what you read from major news organizations

[tuvor]

Not at least without a grain of salt.

Forgive me that this is such an innocuous news item supporting my point, but I'm still really annoyed: TWO errors in the story about the death of Don Adams, aka "Maxwell Smart":

"As the inept Agent 86 of the super-secret federal agency C.O.N.T.R.O.L., Adams captured TV viewers with his antics in combatting the evil agents of C.H.A.O.S."

The evil entity was actually "K.A.O.S."

"Smart's beautiful partner, Agent 99, played by Barbara Felden..."

Wrong! Her last name is "Feldon".

Urgh. What else are they screwing up when it comes to news that matters?

[Lancer]

1. This may seem trivial, but you're right. It's not.

If they screw up information that is so easily verified, it does make one wonder…

[catnhatnh]

2. and show me one guy over 50 who did not masturbate ...

...to dreams or Barbara Feldon or Paula Prentiss and I'll show you either a guy hung up on blonds....or a republican "operative"....

[catnhatnh]

3. Delete Dupe...

...though I admit to "duplicating my efforts"...

[Berry Cool]

4. Because one news outlet can't spell...

...you mistrust them all?

[Tesha]

5. When they fail on "facts you can check", then...

When a news outlet fails on "facts you can check", then that ought to
cause you to also suspect those facts you can't easily check.

To me, this is one of the principal values of attending the anti-
war demos. When you've seen (with "your own lyin' eyes") a crowd
that numbers at least a hundred thousand, and you then go home and
hear about "thousands attending attend demonstration", that helps
calibrate your truth-o-meter for the news. When you see the pro-war
crowd of several hundred getting just as much airtime (and better
quotes earlier in the story) as the hundreds of thousands of anti-
war protesters, that helps you to better understand what "fair and
balanced" coverage really means. When you read a headline telling
you about all the violent arrests but all you saw all day were
people and cops smiling and waving at each other, that helps
you understand what sort of "lede" the reporters and editors
think will sell more advertising space to mega corporations.

News in America is highly biased and woefully uninforming, and
the fact that they can't get even simple facts about Maxwell
Smart correct just shows how un-smart they really are.

Tesha