Okay, I’m not sure which is the more appalling research. Strike that, of course I know.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
…that says 80% of guys can incontrovertibly tell if she’s faking it.
There are wars longer than the Cold War, Thirty Years’ War, and Hundred Years’ war, combined…..
Wow, was there ever really a question about which is more appalling?
First item = duh.
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ANTWERP, Belgium – A TV production company sent fake press releases to the media for a year before being unmasked by a regional paper, it emerged last week. Woestijnvis, the independent production house that makes award-winning programmes like Man bijt hond and De slimste mens ter wereld, admitted the deception and claimed it was an experiment in connection with a forthcoming TV series. No further details were given.
The scheme involved a fake press agency, Data Driven, which issued press releases on seemingly offbeat research projects. For example, one release claimed Open VLD supporters enjoyed sexual relations more often than other party supporters. Following the recent election, another claimed that votes in Flanders spent an average of 27 seconds in the voting booth and that vote counters across the region consumed 17,000 litres of coffee.
All of it was plausible, but none of it was true. Ruben Steegen, a reporter with Het Belang Van Limburg, became suspicious when he read the release claiming that a voter’s political choice could be determined by studying the clothes he wore. Steegen looked into Data Driven’s website and soon found that Woestijnvis was behind it.
Media critics, included politicians, had a field day, arguing that the fact the prank had gone on for a year showed that the media was not doing its job: instead of checking and doublechecking sources, newspapers were accused of lifting press releases wholesale.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."All of it was plausible, but none of it was true.
That’s how I knew it wasn’t some Belgian branch of the Murdoch empire.