ldsuttonjr wrote:
My Friend Zemirah: Watch out with sites like Snopes...They are strictly "Hobby sites" and have been caught pushing agendas. They operate with no regulation...! "T***h has no agenda"
Thanks, Id, for your concern, and for calling me "friend."
I have a real preoccupation with t***h, witness the collection of 6,000 non-fiction, mostly reference and history books distributed in myriad bookcases, scattered through every room in my seventy year old house, that are now usually precluded by an online search.
My insurance agent told me years ago my living room might well end up in the basement because of the weight of the books.
I would have preferred that every word of Ben Stein's current letter be his literal writings, because I agreed with the sentiments as printed...
but it is what it is.
There is only one absolute t***h when dealing with real people, real dates, real occurrences, irregardless of Post-Modern Academic Collectivism, Deconstructionism, Modernism, Minimalism and
Poststructuralism, if it can be sought out.
I have checked several on-line critiques of the Snopes site in the past - before quoting them. Every reputable source I found called them accurate and unbiased, insofar as anyone has been able to ascertain.
The quotes from Wikipedia and others below are supported by their referenced sources.
Quote:
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/website-reviews/snopes
What's it about?
If you're wondering about the verity of the latest Internet scare or computer v***s, Snopes has likely sorted the facts from the fiction. As one of the foremost sites on the Internet for checking out urban legends and other e-t***hs or lies, Snopes takes p***e in uncovering the reality behind stories circulating around the news and Internet.
The site uses a rating system to indicate t***h, falsehood, part true, part false, or undetermined. Thousands of stories are categorized by general subject -- .
July 21, 2004, 8:30 a.m.
Where Urban Legends Fall
Snopes.com, the ultimate debunker.
"...long before the familiar pundits began touring the Michael Moore media circuit, urban-legend debunkers Barbara and David Mikkelson, of the indispensable Snopes.com, were on the case.
"Snopes began as a purely urban-legends site in 1995, run out of the couple's home in the Los Angeles suburbs. But especially since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it's become an invaluable resource for sifting through political and media facts and fallacies."
Accuracy
Snopes has received praise from folklorist Dr. Jan Harold Brunvand, author of a number of books on urban legends and modern folklore, who considers the site so comprehensive as to obviate the necessity for launching one of his own.*[11]
*Seipp, Cathy (July 21, 2004). "Where Urban Legends Fall". National Review Online.
David Mikkelson has said that the site receives more complaints of liberal bias than conservative bias,*[23] but insists that the same debunking standards are applied to all political urban legends.
*"Snopes.com". FactCheck. 2009-04-10. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
FactCheck reviewed a sample of Snopes' responses to political rumors regarding George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama, and found them to be free from bias in all cases.
FactCheck noted that Barbara Mikkelson was a Canadian citizen (and thus unable to v**e in US e******ns) and David Mikkelson was an independent who was once registered as a Republican. "You'd be hard-pressed to find two more apolitical people," David Mikkelson told them.*[23]**[24]
*"Snopes.com". FactCheck. 2009-04-10. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
**"Fact-checking the fact-checkers: Snopes.com gets an 'A'". Network World. April 13, 2009.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/website-reviews/sn... (
show quote)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snopes.comSnopes.com /ˈsnoʊps/, also known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a website covering urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin.*[2] It is a well-known resource for validating and debunking such stories in American popular culture,**[3] receiving 300,000 visits a day.***[4]
* Snopes.com: Debunking Myths in Cyberspace National Public Radio August 27, 2005
**Neil Henry, American Carnival: Journalism Under Siege in an Age of New Media (University of California Press 2007), p. 285.
***David Pogue (July 15, 2010). "At Snopes.com, Rumors Are Held Up to the Light". The New York Times. Retrieved July 16, 2010.
Snopes is run by Barbara and David Mikkelson, a California couple who met in the alt.folklore.urban newsgroup.*[6] The site is organized by topic and includes a message board where stories and pictures of questionable veracity may be posted. The Mikkelsons founded the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society and were credited as the owners of that site until 2005.
*Brian Stelter (April 4, 2010). "Debunkers of Fictions Sift the Net". New York Times. Retrieved April 5, 2010.[/quote]