Will Get Fooled Again

Why do media outlets, pundits, and other MSMers continually fall for fake stories on obvious parody sites on the internet? This latest incident is hilarious. MSNBC falls for a fake news story on the Michael Vick case which includes this:

But at the same time, [Rev. Al] Sharpton argued that the prosecution of Vick was overkill.

If the police caught Brett Favre (a white quarterback for the Green Bay Packers) running a dolphin-fighting unit out of his pool, where dolphins with spears attached to their foreheads fought each other, would they bust him? Of course not," Sharpton wrote Tuesday on his personal blog.

Now, even if you, as a reporter, could believe Sharpton would say something like that, isn’t it part of your job to verify it? Or at least be observant enough to see the fake news warning signs all around you. As Digby notes:

The editor of the site, terribly impressed with MSNBC's investigative skills as you might imagine, wonders which one of these clues finally tipped them off:

1. The words "fake parody blogs" in the titlebar of every page of our site
2. Our logo
3. Al Sharpton blogging on the same site as Lindsay Lohan, George Bush
and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
4. Our about page www.newsgroper.com/about/
5. Al Sharpton referring to himself in his bio as an "Emancipation Proclamation enthusiast"

…It's hard to imagine anyone sentient would believe Sharpton would come up with the "dolphins with spears on their heads" thing. He's colorful but he isn't retarded.

Well, blogs do continue to confound some journalists. But hey, who am I to criticize; I get all my news from The Daily Show, The Onion, and the Colbert Report.