February 23, 2009

CH 8; unSpun: Feb 23

Firstly, I am sticking with unSpun, because I dig it. The first line in this chapter reads, "Sometimes even the most authoritative source can let us down…". This past semester I researched information regarding to such.
In 2005 an extreme case of professional misconduct was published in Newsweek. An article falsely informed readers that U.S. military personnel, stationed at Guantanamo Bay, had flushed a copy of the Koran down the toilet. The story enraged readers so deeply that riots broke out worldwide, some even resulting in death. By the time Newsweek retracted the article it was too late; damage had already been done. I believe these were not the intentions of the writer, but rather he/she was merely concerned with self-interests. Writers who falsify, plagiarize, or embellish their pieces are driven by a philosophical framework called ethical egoism. This means that the writer is basing the story on maximizing self-interests and not those of the media.
This is an excellent example to prove the above quote. Millions of individuals trust Newsweek to inform them about what is going on in the world. This popular magazine let readers down. They published misinformation; therefore individuals must be careful as to what they read and whether or not to trust it.