Fact Check, Much?
So I was reading an article on the CBC website the other day and I noticed something curious:
Now, unless the 2nd Canadian on death row was executed between the time that the first sentence was written and the time the photo caption was written, one of the two statements I’ve highlighted has to be wrong. It’s bad enough when a story has incorrect facts in it – but, seriously CBC, conflicting facts in the same article?
And then I saw this:
Now, in the first article is a bit surprising that they didn’t fact check from, you know, earlier in the article. But this – this is just a slap in the face. They quote Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay, a human rights activist, as saying that she’s tired of being referred to only as MacKay’s wife… and then refer to her as MacKay’s wife in the headline of the same article ((And, yes, I realize that they throw the adjective “activist” in front of the word “wife,” so technically they aren’t referring to her as “only” MacKay’s wife. But, seriously.)).
Fact checking pro tip: Start with the article you are writing. You’d be amazed at all the facts in there. Ideally, these facts should not contradict each other. You’re welcome.
I still haven’t worked out how CBC Radio can be so awesome, but everything else about them can really really suck. It’s an enigma wrapped in a typo wrapped in a cheesy sitcom.
p.s. if I was married to Peter MacKay (or any other Tory), I wouldn’t want people to mention it either.
Ha!
I can’t think of Peter MacKay without thinking of the joke Ralph Klein told about Belinda Stronach: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Alberta_premier_Ralph_Klein_joke_outrages_Liberal_MP_Belinda_Stronach