One of the biggest frustrations I have is seeing so much bad, erroneous, poorly written and just plain “woolly-headed” information that often passes for news in the Mac Community. Any number of rumor sites have sprung up, any number of “journalists” pontificate, any number of online “sources” spew tidbits of information out to the masses, journalistic and otherwise, who gobble it up whole with no thought to whether it’s even true.
Your Mac Life host Shawn King has a new project he’s calling “Stupid Apple Rumors.” King’s goal is track Apple rumors and record, over time, how accurate the rumor is. That’s not all — he will also track how accurate a particular site and individual authors are in reporting rumors. To top it off, King has a section for sites that “ride the coattails” of a story. In other words, sites that parrot a rumor without adding anything to the story.
This, my friends, is going to be interesting.
Jesus..that’s a stupid idea….oh…wait…
Nobody can possibly have this much time or energy on their hands. I mean, there are a LOT of stupid rumors out there.
LOL No kidding. I truly believe I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this one.
Hey! I suggested this exact idea a week ago in one of my comments on this site. Do I not get any credit? 😉
Shawn does this anyway. About time he put it to use and documented it.
LOL I’ve been talking about doing this for *10* years….
Even though Shawn seems like a straight-up guy, if you take the concept of wading through and separating the ol’ wheat from the chaff, why depend on even Shawn? Follow the concept all the way: be your OWN best counsel, make your OWN decisions–not on anyone ELSE’s data–but your OWN observations. What did Aretha Franklin say in her song? “. . . don’t believe HALF of what you see, and NONE of what you hear.”
Interesting suggestion. Do you, say, personally go to the Middle East to gather your own information on civil unrest in Egypt, or do you rely upon journalists and news aggregators do to that for you?
If you’re sincerely concerned and need to know, yes, that would be your best source–a personal look-see.
Short of that, though, it would seem obvious to, at the very least, NOT trust the mass media which has many vested interests to spin the truth more often than not.
Shawn is talking about bloggers, but they’re in the same category of info peddlers.
Short of long distance look-sees, it’s still far more reliable to LOOK FOR YOURSELF. Takes some effort, though, so it won’t be popular.
A great suggestion for people who have ample free time to chase down every issue that concerns their lives. Yes, trustworthy news sources are disappearing as fast as media companies buy up newspapers. And I congratulate you on your purity.
There still remain places where one can discern the difference between actual news and corporate policy, and there are a good number of “funnels” for silly stuff like tech rumors. Shawn King is one of my funnels of choice.
Perusing the new site, I find one killer feature: each story efficiently lists the original source and sites which are “riding the coattails” of it. A handy guide to the sort of stuff that takes The Macalope whole paragraphs of comedy to deliver. Made my day.
ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY! In no way am I setting myself up as the end all, be all authority on *anything*. It’s the reason why I set the site up. I’ve believed in the past that certain sites/sources are full of crap but I’ve never been able to prove it. in time, I *will* be able to point and say, “You have a bad record on rumors”.
Your point is well made and well taken. BUT….
Not everyone has the time, energy, inclination or ability to parse all the data on everything we do in our lives. There are too many decisions to be made every moment of every day.
For example, by your logic, I should go out and personally investigate every single brand of motorcycle or car I’m thinking of buying. Well, that’s simply not possible. So we turn to friends, the internet, Consumer Reports, etc. for the info to help us make these decisions.
That’s what I tell people – find sources you can trust and go with them. But never get too far away from your own gut feelings and always be, as you say, “your own best counsel”.
“Shawn is talking about bloggers”…
To be clear, no I’m not. It may look like we are starting out that way but *any* rumor reporter/source will come under scrutiny. Matter of fact, I look forward to skewering the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the New York Times, et al. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed that! I think it’s important to show readers not just the rumor, but the multiple web sites who simply regurgitate the rumor without adding content but while adding to the Echo Chamber Effect of the rumor, making it seem like “everyone is talking about it!’
“If you’re sincerely concerned and need to know, yes, that would be your best source–a personal look-see.”
Disagree. You can personally observe something without understanding the context of what you’re seeing and not get a complete picture. Hence the need for analysis – a trusted source to help explain what you’re seeing.
If it’s important to me, my observation will be commensurately careful, accompanied by any clarifying questions I may have. But–considering the source–I may or may not accept that third-party input.
‘You are following a current, at the moment, trend of those in your position. You looked around the web and without thinking, bleat the same story; Apple TV’s (and the new occasional one is e-readers). This happened before some 12 years, 20 years ago. I think Gateway went into TV’s and Dell dabbled too: failed. The competition was too great. Why compete against companies that make ONLY TV’s and ‘home entertainment systems’? If you say diversify, I say idiotic; total waste; e-waste.’
I posted this to ‘Seeking α’ and it deserved a partial repeat.
Sheesh! What took you so long? LOL
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I was hoping someone more reputable would step up and do it. 🙂