Fact Check

Not long ago in a social situation I and several of my friends were trying to remember the name of a director. We all knew his work, we could describe him and even knew some of the actors he had worked with, but no one could not think of his name. Some say this is a sign of old age. I say "horse apples". At some point in your life your brain learns that a lot of "facts" you have collected over the years are of absolutely no value. Like the name of a director, I mean it is not the name of one of your children. Einstein said, "Why remember what you can look up". He was smart and old, so there.

Instantly three blackberry's and two Iphones are drawn like six shooters in a bad western and the contest begins. Who can answer the query of the director in question quickest? There are many directions to go which will lead to the correct answer. Some people Google, some IMDB, some Wikipedia while others try to find credit lists for the movies the director has done. Soon the director's name is not important anymore. The only reward for this game is who can come up with it first. Later we realized that everyone was working at the same G3 speed, on different devices and models of communication units. It was really a matter of technique as to who got the name first. Someone, not me, finally found the directors name and there was a general "Oh Yeah, of course. Who could forget?" reaction. The entire process probably took no more than two minutes to go from ignorance to intelligence on this matter. We realized there was no need to remember his name at all since in less than two minutes we could, as Einstein said, "look it up".

So here's the point. In the old days checking facts used to take days. It involved libraries and the dreaded use of "card catalogues" and the Dewey decimal system. It was the realm of nerds and book worms. It would sometimes delay the reporter's news story for days searching for the relevant facts before it was published. Generations ago we assumed information from the learned was true. It was so difficult to check a fact we generally took their word for it. No more, most of us carry the library of congress in our pockets all day long with a G3 response time. So why is there so much crap and misinformation still out there.

So called "news stories" are claiming facts that can be so quickly challenged they don't stand up even as editorial license. Yet most of the country is still accepting these "truths" like the Dewey decimal system was still standing in their way of checking. The Daily Show derives a lot of humor from simply taking politicians remarks and "fact checking" them. Some times the politicians are impeached by their own earlier recorded contradictory statements.

The "fact" is, just because it is so easy to check a fact, we should never assume that a writer/newscaster/pundit/Limbaugh or Beck has done it. We no longer have to take anyone's word for it... we can find out for ourselves and should.

So... the director of Humphrey Bogart's classic movie "Casablanca" was the legendary film noir director Howard Hawks.

As you were,
Jay