- Hi Jeff,
-
- Well I got spoofed too by the Dan Senor story at Counterpunch
and put it up as fact at Rumor Mill News. Here are my comments at Rumor
Mill taking Counterpunch to task for publishing this so-called satire as
if it were a factual story. There was no disclaimer of any on the original.
The text of my comments are below.
-
- http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=49628
-
- Yours,
- Bill Morgan
-
- P.S. Here is the head of the thread showing how I got
spoofed, then tracked the error down:
-
- http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=49564
-
- ==================
-
- Rense Relinks Senor Story - As Satire
- Original at Counterpunch was Published as Fact
-
- The story of Dan Senor breaking down and confessing to
the crimes of the Coalition has been relinked at Rense.com giving notice
that it is satire, which the original article DID NOT.
-
- Jeff or James added this editorial line before the article
which I found droll and amusing:
-
- "[Warning! This is satire! Although factually untrue,
it tells the truth! Read at your own risk.]"
-
- Author Ron Jacobs make a grievous error by not clearly
indicating that his article was satire, and Counterpunch editor Jeffrey
St. Claire compounded the error by not insisting on some kind of indication
that the story was a parody. The result was a breakdown in journalistic
ethics as the spoof went all over the Internet AS FACT. What can they have
been thinking?
-
- Well, apparently what they were thinking was that to
them the story would seem so unthinkable that everyone in the world would
know it was a fake. The trouble arose because the crimes to which the "fictional"
Dan Senor was confessing are in fact obviously going on and have been going
on for some time. The only single thing in the spoof that was actually
"far-fetched" was that anyone in the coalition would confess
to them.
-
- Maybe Jacobs and St. Claire do not believe that creation
of terror amongst the Iraqis by the killing of civilians is going on, or
is part of coalition policy. That would explain why they think that a story
claiming that to be so was a satire. But that does not let them off the
hook for a charge of journalistic abuse because Americans ARE killing innocent
Iraqis regularly, including the 45 wedding party participants referred
to in the so-call spoof. In my opinion the way in which the original article
was published, with NO dislaimer of ANY kind, amounts to unethical journalism
and opens Counterpoint, technically at least, to charges of disinformation.
-
- As of Saturday morning I see that the original has been
removed at Counterpoint, though the link remains, and we shall have to
wait and see whether an apology will be forthcoming or not. Very ironically,
the current leading story at Counterpoint concerns journalistic errors
and disinformation at The New York Times!
-
- Rumor Mill News, by its very name, tells readers to beware.
It says right up front that this is a site where some of the material may
be just rumor. The disclaimer is right up front. The site is all about
the rumors and "chatter" that is flying around the world and
the World Wide Web. But Counterpunch presents itself as a highly reputible
news and opinion site and thus must adhere to a higher code of factual
reporting than a site called Rumor Mill News. This is not to disparage
RMN, but simply to take Counterpunch to task for presenting a completely
fake story with no indication whatsoever that the information presented
is false. The original story was presented exactly as other stories are
presented.
-
- Author Jacobs did later explain in another article that
the story was satire, but I find his excuses for not labeling it as such
extremely lame. As Rense points out in his own disclaimer to the re-link
at Rense.com, the basic "crimes" to which the parodied Dan Senor
confesses are true crimes that are ongoing. Jacobs seems to be so out of
touch with reality that he thinks all his readers would think these (actual)
crimes are not true, and that therefore the article MUST be a satire. As
I said previously, wake up Ron! The only thing far fetched in your article
was that any member of the Coalition would suddenly find a conscience and
confess to those crimes.
-
- STORY RELINKED AS SATIRE AT RENSE
-
-
- Comment
- From Jim Nance
- 5-30-4
-
- Dear Jeff,
-
- Nothing would please me more than if you refrained from
posting any more COUNTERPUNCH articles until Ron Jacobs walks the plank.
-
- He really hurt us with that stupid stunt. People are
crowing about the unreliability of alternative news sites as it is, and
this one will fire them up for sure.
-
- Jacobs' explanation that the last line was supposed to
make it obvious that it was a spoof is unsatisfactory.
-
- Jim Nance
-
- We agree, Jim. Thanks for saying so. -ed
-
-
-
- Comment
- From Jueri Svjagintsev
- 5-30-4
-
- Not good enough.
-
- Actually the Camp X Ray part was believable to me, it
was the "paycheck" comment that seemed a little too much. Some
folks (can't remember which well knowns) are saying that Gore has actually
factually lost his mind after the Move On speech so that part is entirely
credible. In fact lots of people are calling each other crazy lately.
-
- What I meant by not good enough was that, well, basically,
I'm pissed.
-
- While I was not taken in completely, I forwarded it as
an FYI, and it is just as Jacob's says in his second piece, this is all
too believable with madness in full bloom at every turn.
-
- What exactly was the point of the original, now disappeared
piece? I can get this stuff by multi-tasking Judith Miller and The Onion.
If you want to make a point use real incidents-there are plenty out there-
and just substitute a different period in history or take it out of the
current context... that would make a point.
-
- Hey CounterPunch, is this a spoof too? http://www.counterpunch.org/abughraib05242004.html
-
- Having said the above, Jacobs makes some good points
in his "Senor is Safe" article but what was the point of the
original piece again??? Maybe I've lost my sense of humor.
-
- Yes something should most definitely have said somewhere
that it was a parody. Even Orson Welles started his 'War of the Worlds'
with something like that.
-
- Anyway it led me into looking into Dan Senor, which is
in fact worthy of looking into.
- .... and for Ron Jacobs' penance, he should do a write
up on him.
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