Drudge Report Fooled By Fake Story About Bloomberg Being Denied Pizza
I put this in politics because I think it's an example of a bigger problem. Studies have show that people will gravitate toward information sources that confirm their beliefs or preconceived notions about an issue.
This is extremely dangerous to us as a society-- especially when an unstable fringe element (readers of Drudge or Breitbart) go to a completely unreliable source for what seems like a daily dose of hate and fear-mongering. Drudge and Co. have built a business up around the notion that sick and angry people need to be reassured all their rage is not impotent, and that they're not alone.
The fact that Alex Jones and Limbaugh have a following, a loyal audience, tells us that sick people want to feel part of a group--thus making them feel more "normal".
What goes on at the fringes of our American political spectrum is not normal at all.
Look at what happened when CNN got the facts wrong about the bombing suspect being captured. They were raked over the coals. But these popular fringe websites have not ethics or accountability.
The Drudge Report was fooled by a fake story about Mayor Bloomberg being denied pizza on Friday morning.
The website picked up a piece by the Daily Currant which said that Bloomberg "was denied a second slice of pizza" at a Brooklyn restaurant in retaliation for his soda ban. The Daily Currant, however, is a satirical website.
The Drudge Report splashed a photo of Bloomberg eating a slice of pizza with the headline "No Pizza For You!" before taking it down moments later.
The site isn't the first to be fooled by "The Daily Currant." The Currant's fake report about Paul Krugman going bankrupt was picked up by Breitbart. Its version of events had the Nobel Prize-winning econominst racking up bills on his American Express black card at Tiffany's, and buying rare Portuguese wines and 19th century English cloth.
I put this in politics because I think it's an example of a bigger problem. Studies have show that people will gravitate toward information sources that confirm their beliefs or preconceived notions about an issue.
This is extremely dangerous to us as a society-- especially when an unstable fringe element (readers of Drudge or Breitbart) go to a completely unreliable source for what seems like a daily dose of hate and fear-mongering. Drudge and Co. have built a business up around the notion that sick and angry people need to be reassured all their rage is not impotent, and that they're not alone.
The fact that Alex Jones and Limbaugh have a following, a loyal audience, tells us that sick people want to feel part of a group--thus making them feel more "normal".
What goes on at the fringes of our American political spectrum is not normal at all.
Look at what happened when CNN got the facts wrong about the bombing suspect being captured. They were raked over the coals. But these popular fringe websites have not ethics or accountability.