You could not get away from this story a few days ago. Especially here in Michigan.
Here are some of the headlines:
Those are the Google results from just a minute before I wrote this post. On page one of Google right now, only 2 articles mention that this story was fabricated. Given that up to 95% of users won’t go to the second page (various studies have it 80% – 95%), this is a perfect scenario for this fakenews to continue to spread.
“She came in the house and she was wet, like soaking wet, and I’m asking her what happened but she was afraid to tell me because she thought she was going to get in trouble,” Rapier told Fox17. “And then I called my boys because I knew they’d tell me and then they said the guy said ‘stupid N-word’ and started peeing on her.”
After interviewing several of the children who had allegedly witnessed the incident, police arrested David Allen Dean on the charge of felony sex offense excluding assault and commercializing, WWMT reported.
Sounds horrific. I even came close to posting it myself. Then again, I’ve been in the media a long time. I know the patterns, and I’m a cynic. The overwhelming majority of these types of stories are garbage.
You saw the headlines in the image above. This became a national viral story.
A thorough investigation by the Grand Rapids Police Department, in conjunction with the Kent CountyProsecutor‘s Office, has revealed that recent allegation that an adult male urinated on a child were fabricated. After interviews by a trained specialist, the parents of the children talked to them more, and the children admitted the adult make was not involved. One the of the children urinated on another child, and the story was concocted to avoid trouble. Additionally, citizens in the surrounding provided a verifiable alibi for the recorded time of the incident.
We appreciate the conscientiousness of the parents in bringing the matter to the attention of the police, and in continuing to ask their children question as new evidence was obtained.
As I’ve said countless times … don’t rush to validate a sensationalized story. They’re usually hoaxes.
A note that used the n-word and threatened a black female student at St. Olaf College — sparking an intense protest that led to classes being shut down for a day as student demonstrators accused the school of institutional racism — “was not a genuine threat,” the school’s president said Wednesday.
President David Anderson said in an email to students that an investigation into the note identified a person of interest “who confessed to writing the note.”
“We’ve confirmed that this was not a genuine threat. We’re confident that there is no ongoing threat from this incident to individuals or the community as a whole,” he said.
Someone spray-painted the words “KKK,” “White rule KKK” and other hateful messages on a construction site for the church as well as on some nearby cars.
“The people that we serve are very generous,” said David Gomez, pastor of New Life Fellowship Church. “They are very committed. They love God.”
New church building, possibly wanting to get parishioners, all of the ‘hate’ graffiti is conveniently on areas that won’t cost the church any money because they will be covered by sheetrock.
I’m not saying what happened in Galveston is a hoax, but it has all the markers of one.
An African American man in Tennessee was arrested for allegedly posing as a local white business owner and writing hoax letters pretending the businessman was a racist who was planning attacks on local black leaders.
While it may seem slightly Orwellian, Roku has ensured that customer privacy will be protected by requiring users to opt-in to the feature and not have it function automatically without their consent. Known as “More Ways to Watch,” it can be turned off at any time; however, Roku has said that information collected will not be deleted.
The EFF’s new “Spying on Students” report [PDF] pulls together two years’ worth of research and data trying to find out whether educational technology (ed tech) companies are protecting students’ privacy. The answer is, unfortunately, largely not.
It will reportedly be a recruitment tool similar to LinkedIn — however, early reports suggest it will be available through your personal Google account.
