Cerebral Soup - The Archives
Why does news.com.au want Australians to hate Americans?
One of the main reasons I posted the entry "Substance Abuse" was because on the initial reading of the article I felt it was suspect.
A lone voice I cried out against this validity of this story! [/joke]
But now some others are piping up:
Basically news.com.au (and the affiliates) have published a story which is not verifiable by actual fact, but certainly guaranteed to cause a stir.
In addition - as both I and a commenter Helen Deb (oops!) - commented on the other post - they won't publish reasonable comments questioning the validity of the story. They have however published the dodgy "Americans suck!" comments. Which to be completely honest is not even related to the story or the "ban" - I don't recall 300 million Americans rising up in protest of them being potentially exposed to Vegemite in their own country.
What it is kiddies - is just sensationalism. Whether they are getting some advertising dollar kickback from extra hits to their sites, or from Kraft (<-- toeing the line here (~_^) ).
And all of you who sent a mail using the special mail link in their follow up bullshit story, set up or signed an online petition - congratulations! You have fallen for their ploy hook, line and sinker. Your membership card to the Ignorant Masses has been stamped!
There are several issues at play here:
Why would the banning of Vegemite in the US cause such a stir?
What are the true reasons for such vitriolic backlash about such a trivial issue?
Can mainstream media be trusted?
To what degree as readers should we demand for factual evidence and citations in news stories?
Why do so few people question news stories they see published?
I hope to be examining these issues over the rest of this week. In the meantime, get one of these and QUESTION EVERYTHING.
Update: Oh what a surprise.
My fav bit:
"Mr Herndon said the FDA was surprised by the media reports."
Reports. No mention that it was originally a single article from one reporter sent around to all the news affiliates of news.com.au. Referring to themselves as "media" and implying that there were several reports coming from different sources is a bit bloody cheeky.
There was also no mention of "Ooops! We messed up. Er sorry."
Posted by mjd-s on October 24, 2006 2:54 PM