Is Tara Haelle credible? Find out. | a Twitter conversation
Is Tara Haelle credible? Find out.
One way authoritarian countries deal with dissent is to declare political opponents "crazy" and then lock them away for "treatment".
In the U.S., we have the Lite version: reporters and others who declare some ideas crazy and outside the bounds of what can be discussed.
For an example, turn to "The Craziest Things People Are Saying About Ebola" in Politico, written by freelance writer Tara Haelle. Just like in dictatorships, she attempts to draw a line between topics that can be discussed and those that are beyond the pale.
One of her "crazy" sources - a source she takes seriously - is actually the very well-known satire site Christwire. Someone who's credible would realize that's a satire site - it's not difficult to determine. Yet, apparently Tara Haelle was in too much of a hurry to collect her payment that she didn't bother to check. Neither did Politico's layers of editors. And, it's not like it's hidden: it's right in the second paragraph:
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"In one corner of the Internet, we learn that President Obama created the Ebola virus—or Obama-Ebola—to “infect the DNA of Christians and to destroy Jesus so that a New Age of Liberal Darkness can rise in America.”
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Determining what else Politico gets wrong is left as an exercise to those with lots of time on their hands.
In the U.S., we have the Lite version: reporters and others who declare some ideas crazy and outside the bounds of what can be discussed.
For an example, turn to "The Craziest Things People Are Saying About Ebola" in Politico, written by freelance writer Tara Haelle. Just like in dictatorships, she attempts to draw a line between topics that can be discussed and those that are beyond the pale.
One of her "crazy" sources - a source she takes seriously - is actually the very well-known satire site Christwire. Someone who's credible would realize that's a satire site - it's not difficult to determine. Yet, apparently Tara Haelle was in too much of a hurry to collect her payment that she didn't bother to check. Neither did Politico's layers of editors. And, it's not like it's hidden: it's right in the second paragraph:
---------
"In one corner of the Internet, we learn that President Obama created the Ebola virus—or Obama-Ebola—to “infect the DNA of Christians and to destroy Jesus so that a New Age of Liberal Darkness can rise in America.”
---------
Determining what else Politico gets wrong is left as an exercise to those with lots of time on their hands.
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tarahaellescience journo (SciAm,Slate,Politico,WaPo,Forbes), mom, photographer, kid lit, traveler, scuba, shark lover, #IRPFellow Mozambique, blog http://t.co/f0MeI3EoP4If this user replies, it will be added to the list of tweets below. If you see no replies below, they have not replied.