Your Guide on How to Immunize Yourself Against Misinformation in 2013

“In 800 newspaper bylines I can count on fingers and toes the ones that were actually true” – the words of Richard Peppiatt, British tabloid defector, speaking last week at a series of talks on Bad Journalism at the Centre for Inquiry. According to Peppiat, the articles he wrote were a “fiction, just here to entertain”. Peppiatt attested that while working as a journalist he was expected to turn out fifteen stories in an eight hour shift at The Daily Star “leaving no time for truth”. Peppiatt left The Daily Star afraid his fact devoid writings may stir hatred that would result in people getting hurt, “you forget that there are people who pick up that paper and believe every word of it”. Peppiatt listed off dozens of headlines that were completely untrue, far exceeding the spellbinding list that Peppiatt read out at the Leveson Inquiry (see footage below). I wasn’t able to keep up with all of them but I’ll post a link to the video of the talk when it becomes available.