EPIC journalism FAIL: Crackergate and Blasphemy Day

In an NPR article that criticizes the recent pro-free speech and borderline anti-religious event that was Blasphemy Day, comes this massive example of fact-checking incompetence:

The more outrageous the message the better, says PZ Myers, who writes an influential blog that calls, among other things, for the end of religion. On Blasphemy Day, Myers drove a rusty nail through a consecrated Communion wafer and posted a photo on his Web site.

"People got very angry," he recalls. "I don't know why. I mean, it's just a cracker, right?"

Holy shit. Crackergate happened over a year ago, in the midst of summer of 2008. PZ performed the act in response to the ridiculous and vile outcry from religious nutjobs aimed at college student Webster Cook, who had the sheer gall to take a consecrated communion wafer – a frackin’ cracker, as PZ so rightly puts it – and pocket it without either eating it or returning it. PZ’s actions had absolutely nothing to do with Blasphemy Day. Truly, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, the author of this horror, seriously needs to learn to perform some basic background checks on the claims she makes. This is hilarious and ridiculous, in equal amounts.

If “journalists” can make mistakes this glaringly obvious without bothering to correct them or even hide them, then I truly worry about the future of the media. It’s not as if its credibility and reliability could lose all that much more stance as it is.

Technorati tags: journalism · PZ Myers · Crackergate · Blasphemy Day · religion · atheism · Freedom of Speech