BRITTANY YEAROUT
Perspectives Editor
You might have heard of how many acres were lost or how many homes and structures were destroyed in the recent California wildfires. But did you hear that the Hispanic separatists claim responsibility for the arson of some of the major fires last week?
No not really. But hundreds of thousands of people believed this hoax that was written in a fake CNN Web site.
“Radical Hispanic separatist organization MECHA (“Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan”) is taking responsibility for setting the wildfires in California, confirmed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,” said the fake article, “Separatists Claim Responsibility for the California Wildfires.”
The phony article even reported there is photographic proof of the people holding Molotov cocktails and throwing them into brush. The site is no longer showing the fake news report. In fact, you can’t even get onto the site. But it has already done its damage.
Think about how quickly news spreads: after one news source gets the information, it is picked up as fact by a lot of other Web sites and don’t forget about word of mouth. Although this might not be the case for this particular incident, so many times I hear about the shocking news of the day from friends. News sources and individuals need to start being more careful about where they get their information.
I am not just talking about this one incident, because this isn’t the first time that someone has faked a news report using CNN. A Web site that reported fake news stories from CNN was taken offline in 2003 after receiving a legal letter from the cable network, according to www.wired.com. The hoax stories consisted of the death of Dave Mathews and the Olsen twins attending certain universities.
If one would have looked carefully at the URL, it didn’t say cnnheadLINEnews.com, but instead said cnnheadLIEnews.com. Most would say that the fake story is not a big deal and it is the peoples fault for not paying close attention. But would you have done the same thing?
Anti-imigrant Web sites did and they quickly reported the fake story as fact. For example, the author of americanandproud.net said “I am going to wait until all the facts are in, but it appears the first major shot of the next Mexican/American war has just been fired.” And anklebitingpundits.com said “It’s time to treat them like the al-Qaeda terrorists that they are …”
Even though these sites are as illigitimate as the site from which they took information, this just shows how easy it is for false information to spread over the Internet.
And this was probably the intention of whoever put it up, a whip lash effect bringing even more heat to the illegal immigration issue; the tragedy and confusion of the fire brought the perfect opportunity.
Again, you might not think this is a big deal but as online journalism takes on a larger role in informing the public about issues of importance, people need to start picking credible sites to get their daily news. On May 3, 2006, BBC reported that “A quiet revolution is taking place on how people get their news.” They surveyed 10,000 people and found that one in five 18 to 24 year-olds said online sources are their first choice for news.
With this in mind, individuals should realize that even the most technically challenged person can create his own Web page.
I am not saying that anyone who starts a blog or a Web page that provides news isn’t credible or even that a law needs to be enforced so that people are penalized for putting up fake news. But responsibility doesn’t just fall on the journalist. Now it also falls on the reader.
11-01-2007
