we have become a society full of catchy titles and cell phone videos posted online with the hopes of going viral. so does that mean that we’re suffering from a sickness? because the content has become garbage, what does that say about us as a society? according to wes and ryan in today’s podcast, writing is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

instead of focusing on real issues and problems instead of having a conversation about them, red herrings are thrown around in the form of unexplained phenomena. news has become a misconstrued version of one person’s opinion tossed out as fact, without any fact checking or research. this has not only been used on even reputable sites but is now considered acceptable, so when we as a society are actually presented with evidence and facts, we refuse to believe it because of one person’s opinion being louder than the sound truth.

links to check out:

EDITS BY A REDHEAD

Every so often, Wes and Ryan get their facts a little off. Little did they know that by having a redheaded history and English teacher do their show notes, they were also going to get called out when they don’t get their history right. I’ll try not to make fun of them as well, but you never know what you’re going to get with a redhead, so sometimes you’ll see this section and sometimes you won’t. Below are a few clarifications from statements made during today’s podcast:

Princess Di was killed in a car crash in Paris
1. Besides the fact that I still remember walking into my house after my first day of work from my first job to watch the news reporting the tragic death of Princess Diana, I also walked right past the very tunnel that she died in while visiting Paris. She did not die in London, Ryan!!!!
Pulitzer and Hearst
1. Clearly Wes does not have the soundtrack to Newsies memorized like some girl who shall remain nameless does. This same redheaded girl may or may not have also had a huge tween crush on pretty much every newsboy in the movie, but “The World Will Know” is pretty clear about which big business tycoons they were talking about.
2. Rockefellers (they were oil big wigs) were NOT mentioned in Newsies, but at least Wes got the right time period, so that’s something, I suppose.
1994 article of Michael Fey caning
1. This style of journalism, stating facts and using direct quotes without one’s own personal interjection has become a thing of the past, but it also allows the reader to make up their own mind about the issue.
Yellow journalism
1. What Ryan and Wes are describing with bad journalism getting content out without fact checking isn’t new. In fact, it nearly started a war with Cuba!
2. Here are some examples of yellow journalism- present and past and the ignorance of yellow journalism as used by Marshawn Lynch.
Canada is not always #1
1. Wes will be greatly relieved to know that after looking up multiple sources on world rankings in education, Canada may always be towards the top of the list, but it’s not always #1. That honor almost always goes to an Asian country. Or Finland.
Google search “fallacy”
1. One of the greatest, albeit difficult, helps I received while learning how to write historical papers came from learning how NOT to commit a historical fallacy.

how 2000 dead geese make Canada #1