British funnyman Tom Scott devised a set of stick-on “warning labels” for faulty journalism; he claims that he’s been wandering the London Underground sticking them on newspapers. My favorite is the one above:
The Daily Mail’s attempt to classify everything as either ‘causing’ and ‘curing’ cancer is already well documented, but there’s plenty of wacky medical claims in all the newspapers. Ooh, look, some healing crystals.
And this is for print journalism, where they have things like “copy editors” and “fact-checkers.” Proposed label for a good portion of the Internet (we’re not saying which portion): “The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact.”
See the full set of warning labels at Scott’s website; printable PDF of stickers at this link.
(Tom Scott via Boing Boing)
Published: Aug 13, 2010 12:38 pm