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At 02:21 PM 7/22/98 -0400, Ed Scott said:

>Please keep politics out of this list! Believe me, you don't want to go
>there.

*Huh*?

Meanwhile, Jon Morgan wondered about the hoax by 20-something actors:

>Will this hurt the credibility of other websites on the Internet which wish
>to present a worldwide "first"? Such as live weddings shown over the
>Internet, or perhaps the broadcasting of another live birth?

Yes, and it SHOULD!  Editors need to evaluate the NEWS VALUE of ANY
event, on the Net or otherwise, before running stories.  That whomever
is doing whatever "on the Internet" rather than "in a theater" doesn't
make it more newsworthy, does it?  If so, maybe the story should be WHY
putting it on the Net is of interest.

>What would you have done to double check the claims made by the people at
>Our First Time, before running a story about it?

The FIRST thing to do is assign it to a reporter who is Net-savvy, and
NOT just railroad the release!  Go look at the site; check the Internic
registration; call the registrant; look at any meta tags in the site's
HTML and see what's up there.  The reporters who DID do this were the
first to suggest it was a hoax -- within hours of Reuters railroading
the press release with a "wow gee whiz!" head.

>    I think of this as a lesson: First of all, that you can't believe 1/5 of
>the stuff you read or hear on the Internet, and even then one should double
>check on such information. Now, even the people we put our good faith into
>turned out to just be pulling our legs.

"Good faith"?  Do you put your "good faith" into press releases, or check
them out?  Why does their being "on the Internet" make them more worthy of
trust than coming over the fax or PRN?

>    I would like your help in understanding what made Our First Time so
>believable, and what the best way will be to double check the next claim
>made about "firsts" on the Internet.

The problem was, it WASN'T believeable.  But because the claim sounded 
*plausible* (gee: SEX? On the INTERNET?!!?  Stop the presses!), the 
gullible gatekeepers who OK'd the story got burned.  Lesson: assign the
Net beat the same way you assign others: by putting reporters on it
what know the *culture* of the Net.  Caveat editor.

 + Randy Cassingham, author of "This is True" * arcie@thisistrue.com +
 | http://www.thisistrue.com * autoresponder TrueInfo@thisistrue.com |
 + FIGHT SPAM!! Send blank e-mail to nospam@mailback.com for details +



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