Monday, June 30, 2008

I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing...

Because I'm really a sensitive and considerate person at heart, I wouldn't normally pick on a random anonymous commenter like this, but I couldn't pass up this educational opportunity.

Here is what Mr. Anonymous wrote this morning, in response to the earlier post on NBC's To Catch A Predator:
"I believe I heard it on Glen Beck maybe not, that no convictions resulted from Catch a Preditor[sic]"
Stop and let this sink in for a second: This person typed in this factually incorrect comment while connected to the internet.

Now, yesterday morning, before I started putting the finishing touches on the post in question, I knew pretty much squat about the Murphy, TX/Louis Conradt flap. Thanks to the magic of Al Gore's intertubes, in about an hour I had read a 12 page Esquire magazine exposé, a half dozen news reports, a double handful of Wikipedia articles, and some assorted editorial columns and blog posts, as well as watching several YouTube clips of Dateline: To Catch A Predator, a show I had never actually seen on TeeWee.

If only there were some big network of information-filled computers to consult rather than relying on what one might or might not remember from listening to Glenn Beck...

So, Mr. Anonymous, whoever you are, I hope you take this in the spirit in which it was intended, for you have provided a valuable lesson for us all.

9 comments:

  1. Man, I hope I never give you the opportunity to point that high powered snark at me.

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  2. Wow.
    It's hard to believe that someone would actually put something that's incorrect on the intertubes.
    The Goracle would be upset!

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  3. One of my favorite Bill Mauldin cartoons is the one with the mess sergeant holding a bayonet and a Garand, saying "I'll be damned. Did you know this can opener fits on the end of a rifle?"

    In the same vein, "I'll be damned. Did you know you can use this porn machine to look stuff up?"

    ;)

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  4. Hey, careful spelling out Pr0n like that, it could result in thousands more hi -- uh, never mind.

    :)

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  5. Surprised you didn't mention this:

    http://xkcd.com/386/

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  6. You say you looked it up right?
    So were there convictions, or not?









    ;P

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  7. Not out of the Murphy, TX episode, because the local chief borked things pretty good from the prosecution end.

    The show itself has resulted in something like 200.

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  8. Wow. Armor-piercing snark. Poor guy never knew what hit him.

    ReplyDelete

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