Speakeasy forum: The sad state of Journalism these days.

It used to be that a reporter had to have two independent sources for any individual fact in a story. Today? Not so much. The generally respected and respectable Washington Post got suckered by a truly hilarious fake story about Sarah Palin going to work for Al Jazeerah, though it didn't reach the print version of the paper. It appeared in Suzi Parker's blog.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/02/sarah-palin-al-jazeera-washington-post/62056/

"Journalists all around the country do not want to be The Washington Post's Suzi Parker, a blogger who couldn't tell satire from reality and erroneously reported that Sarah Palin was headed to Al Jazeera America. The Post added this ugly, bold, and altogether embarrassing correction at the top of Parker's blog post this afternoon, referring to her only as "the blogger""

I particularly liked the fictional quotation from Ms Palin: "As you all know, I'm not a big fan of newspapers, journalists, news anchors and the liberal media in general," Palin said. "But I met with the folks at Al-JaJizzraa (sic) and they told me they reach millions of devoutly religious people who don't watch CBS or CNN. That tells me they don't have a liberal bias."

Let me repeat, that is an entirely fictional quotation, which virtually anyone would recognize as a spoof, but which Ms Parker somehow took seriously. I mean Al JaJizzraa? Who would fall for that, except when you think about the many incredible things Ms. Palin has actually said. Apparently she's worn out the BS detectors at the WaPo blog-pen if not the editorial bull-pen.

It does cause one to reflect that perhaps bull-pen isn't merely an analogy to a stockyard enclosure, but is the place where scrutiny is supposed to challenge and weed out the stupidity of lazy reporters.

Rob