Hoisted from Comments: jerry on Perry Bacon
Hoisted from Comments: jerry points out that the Washington Post's Perry Bacon has even fewer ethics than I had believed:
Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: If I were snopes.com, I would sue the Washington Post and Perry Bacon. Here is what Perry Bacon wrote about Snopes:
Another e-mail, on a site called Snopes.com that tracks Internet rumors, starts, "Be careful, be very careful." It notes that "Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim," and that "since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when you are seeking political office in the United States, Obama joined the United Church of Christ to help purge any notion that he is still a Muslim."
What did Bacon leave out?
A) That Snopes clearly wrote in a big red font: FALSE
B) That Snopes clearly debunked this email.
The Perry Bacon account would have you believe that snopes "tracks internet rumors" but gives no context that snopes bunks or debunks the rumors, in this case debunking it throughly.
I think it's time to advance the Washington Post dissolution clock a year. Without radical, radical reforms, I give it four more years in newsprint.