Spring Break
Good news: No beer pong herpes
This just in: The media, including Fox News, isn't perfect.
By: Kenny Ryan
Issue date: 3/10/09 Section: Opinion
Good news, Aggies: you can't get herpes from beer pong.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but to those who watch "Fox and Friends," a morning program on Fox News, this is a pleasant surprise.
On Feb. 24, "Fox and Friends" ran a news story about a Center for Disease Control report linking beer pong to the spread of a variety of diseases, including herpes. The problem with all of this is that the Center for Disease Control never released any such report; it was a work of fiction.
The beer pong herpes story started as a hoax on the Internet, designed to look like an Associated Press dispatch. A college newspaper then picked up the story and it spread from there. The Daily Collegian from the University of Massachusetts even published an article that claimed, "according to the Center for Disease Control, unprotected beer pong play is nearly as dangerous as unprotected sex." From The Daily Collegian, Fox News caught the beer pong herpes bug, which it then exposed to a national audience.
In case anyone out there is skeptical that Fox News would run an unconfirmed story, allow me to refer you to the Center for Disease Control website. A simple search on www.cdc.gov for "beer pong herpes" will reveal a press release from Feb. 26 stating, "Recent news stories about an alleged CDC study showing a possible link between the drinking game, Beer Pong, and herpes simplex 1, the virus that causes cold sores, are false."
The point of all this isn't to inform you beer pong can be played safely without a fear of herpes. The point is that sometimes, news agencies mess up.
Somehow, I doubt the notion that a news agency is capable of making mistakes is a foreign concept to Aggies. A newsroom is a complex place where a large number of people are depended on to do their job for the final product to accurately report the news. There are people responsible for checking facts and confirming sources, others are tasked with editing stories (where the rewording of a sentence can unintentionally change its meaning) and another group is in charge of designing page layout, where a moment of carelessness can bring unwanted consequences.
When everyone does their job right, good reporting results, but one bad link in the chain is all that is needed for reports of beer pong herpes to rampantly spread through the media.
This is where the consumers of all types of news media step in. When a mistake is made, it is much appreciated when a diligent reader brings the mistake to the attention of the agency responsible for the mishap so a correction can be made.
News reporting isn't the slanted conspiracy the public often takes it to be. When details are omitted, it is typically by accident and corrected at the earliest moment. I doubt Fox News is involved in a massive beer pong herpes conspiracy to eliminate the sport. More likely, someone slipped up and pursued a story without thinking to confirm the facts.
Keep in mind when you are leafing through your daily paper, Aggies, critical thinking is just as important to those reading the news as it is to those writing it.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but to those who watch "Fox and Friends," a morning program on Fox News, this is a pleasant surprise.
On Feb. 24, "Fox and Friends" ran a news story about a Center for Disease Control report linking beer pong to the spread of a variety of diseases, including herpes. The problem with all of this is that the Center for Disease Control never released any such report; it was a work of fiction.
The beer pong herpes story started as a hoax on the Internet, designed to look like an Associated Press dispatch. A college newspaper then picked up the story and it spread from there. The Daily Collegian from the University of Massachusetts even published an article that claimed, "according to the Center for Disease Control, unprotected beer pong play is nearly as dangerous as unprotected sex." From The Daily Collegian, Fox News caught the beer pong herpes bug, which it then exposed to a national audience.
In case anyone out there is skeptical that Fox News would run an unconfirmed story, allow me to refer you to the Center for Disease Control website. A simple search on www.cdc.gov for "beer pong herpes" will reveal a press release from Feb. 26 stating, "Recent news stories about an alleged CDC study showing a possible link between the drinking game, Beer Pong, and herpes simplex 1, the virus that causes cold sores, are false."
The point of all this isn't to inform you beer pong can be played safely without a fear of herpes. The point is that sometimes, news agencies mess up.
Somehow, I doubt the notion that a news agency is capable of making mistakes is a foreign concept to Aggies. A newsroom is a complex place where a large number of people are depended on to do their job for the final product to accurately report the news. There are people responsible for checking facts and confirming sources, others are tasked with editing stories (where the rewording of a sentence can unintentionally change its meaning) and another group is in charge of designing page layout, where a moment of carelessness can bring unwanted consequences.
When everyone does their job right, good reporting results, but one bad link in the chain is all that is needed for reports of beer pong herpes to rampantly spread through the media.
This is where the consumers of all types of news media step in. When a mistake is made, it is much appreciated when a diligent reader brings the mistake to the attention of the agency responsible for the mishap so a correction can be made.
News reporting isn't the slanted conspiracy the public often takes it to be. When details are omitted, it is typically by accident and corrected at the earliest moment. I doubt Fox News is involved in a massive beer pong herpes conspiracy to eliminate the sport. More likely, someone slipped up and pursued a story without thinking to confirm the facts.
Keep in mind when you are leafing through your daily paper, Aggies, critical thinking is just as important to those reading the news as it is to those writing it.
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