Special Agent Orange, That Was Me

Much has been made of the superiority of newspapers vs. blogs. We've all heard how the papers have processes, fact-checkers, grammar police, gate-keepers, etc. to ensure that what they write will be truthful, accurate and factual.

But anyone with half a brain knows that in practice it's hogwash and the NARN boys prove it every week with their This Week In Gatekeeping segment.

So yesterday I was reading the Rochester Post-Bulletin and came across this on the front page regarding a series of articles on the homeless:

Eight months ago, after a homeless man was severely burned when his shelter caught fire, photographer Jerry Olson and reporter Jeff Hansel started an in-depth look at a mostly hidden minority in Rochester. They began interviewing homeless people and those at risk of homelessness.

This week the Post-Bulletin presents the first stories based on interviews with about 100 people, including more than 60 people who were homeless at the time they were interviewed.

Social workers, police, educators, health providers, family members, volunteers and aid workers also were interviewed. Although it has not been possible to verify every detail, much of the information presented has been independently checked through discussions with former employers, court documents, police reports, family members, friends and observation.

So "much" of the information will be right and the rest could be BS. Problem is, we'll never know which information has been verified and which hasn't and this is important since the entire point of the piece is anecdotal personal stories--which may be simply fabricated.

The biggest lie consistently told by the supposedly "homeless" is that they are veterans. Seems to me this would be a fairly easy thing to check but what do I know? A savvy reporter could easily verify the veracity of a vet claim by merely asking a few pertinent questions like what unit were you in, where did you serve or what was your fifth General Order.

I'm thinking of the movie Trading Places where Billy Ray Valentine (played by Eddie Murphy) is begging on the streets of Philadelphia and gets approached by two cops:

Who's that? Who's there?

Police!

We've had complaints about con men
pretending to be blind and crippled.

I ain't seen nothing since
I stepped on that landmine in Vietnam.

It was very painful.

You were in 'Nam? So were we. Where?

I was in...Sang Bang...

Dang Gong...

I was all over the place, a lot of places.

What unit?

I was with the Green Berets,
Special Unit Battalions...

Commando Airborne Tactics...
Specialist Tactics Unit Battalion.

Yeah, it was real hush hush.

I was Agent Orange,
Special Agent Orange, that was me.

But actually checking a few pertinent details would get in the way of the template-approach that most reporters take to the whole homeless story: a veteran is being shat upon by the very country he served so honorably after falling on hard times because of cuts in social services. Sigh.

I want to come up with a disclaimer to use for explaining behavior to my wife. Something like "Honey, I'm about to tell you where I was last night. And although I cannot verify ALL the details, most of them are not bullshit. Okay, we started the night at the Dew Drop Inn..."