Real-time Example!
It happened two weeks ago to the Vikings, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and the Star Tribune when they didn’t check their facts and wound up very embarrassed!
Find out what happened by checking out this story!
It started with a single post on MySpace: Orlando Thomas, former NFL (Vikings player) had died from Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Within a few hours, the story had exploded over the internet and newspapers. The University of Louisiana heard of it, and told the Minnesota Vikings.
The Vikings posted a memorial on their website and promised to honor Orlando Thomas at their next home game.
Then the media picked it up: within 24 hours of the first post on MySpace, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated all published articles about Thomas’ death.
Someone even went to Wikipedia and added a date of death to the page about Orlando Thomas (on October 28, 2009 — this has since been changed).
And then came the shocker: Orlando Thomas wasn’t dead! Finally, the same mess that began with Social Networking ended with Social Networking. A former NFL player, Jake Reed tweeted that Orlando was alive.
This tangled mess and failure to fact check and evaluate websites is horribly sad. Could you imagine being Thomas or his family?!
Moral of the Story: Don’t fall into the same trap; ALWAYS check your sources!!
Want to read more? Here are some articles poster after the truth came out:
Thanks to Amy and her blog the “Ch-ch-changing Librarian” in St Paul for providing this story!
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