I haven’t done a very good job these past few months of updating my blog.  Part of that is just general busy-ness, part of it is just a lack of motivation.  I did post a film review of Avatar over on the film blog, but other than that I haven’t done much in the way of blogging.  I figured I’d give a brief update on things.

Well, I finished my first semester at Washington University.  I made an A in both classes, so I was pretty pleased with that.  Next semester I have a class on children’s literature and film, the Italian Renaissance, and an English class.  Seems a weird combination of classes, but I really didn’t have a lot to choose from, and so I just picked the three things that sounded best.  Well, the English class I have to take.  But the other two classes sounded somewhat interesting. Heather is done completely, having finished her last class.  She’s graduating with her graduate degree and already has a full time position lined up as the International Human Resources Coordinator at the law firm where she was interning.

Other than that, not a lot is happening.  I’ve been reading The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, which is very good, as well as The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  I got quite a few books for Christmas, as well as a few video games and movies, so I’ve been pretty occupied.

After seeing the Nakele blowhole, we drove back to the hotel and cleaned up, then went into Lahaina to Warren and Annabelle’s, which according to the guidebook is the best show on the island.  You can eat there, but we thought it would be cheaper to just eat in Lahaina, so we found an excellent deep dish pizza place and had a nice dinner, then walked over to see the show.

Before you see the show you are forced to wait in Annabelle’s parlor where you are served drinks, appetizers, and are treated to a “ghost” playing old tunes on a piano.  It would’ve been enjoyable had the wait been twenty minutes…but it ended up being like an hour and a half before we were actually seated in the theater and got to see Warren perform his magic tricks.  Thankfully, the show lived up to its billing and we were quite amazed.  Warren was witty, humorous, and his show was quite impressive.  If you get a chance to go to Maui, I highly recommend you check it out.

Day 6

The last day our plane didn’t leave until 6, so we used the morning to drive to the Iao Valley, a luscious Maui valley that gets over 400 inches of rainfall a year.  It also has served as the site to one of Maui’s most historical events, a great battle during the 1700’s between two warring Hawaiian factions.  Because my camera was broke, I didn’t get any picture, but again, you can see some of it over on Heather’s blog.  It was quite impressive, extremely green and just some gorgeous scenery.  Absolutely breathtaking.

Finally, our flight left at 6 (about 10 pm our time) and both the flight from Maui to Dallas and from Dallas to home were among the worst flights I’ve ever had.  During the former, I was seated in front of two young kids who were separated from their parents, and they kept screaming, laughing loudly, and just generally being annoying.  No one, it seemed, could get any sleep.  The second flight, the lady behind me complained every time I tried to put my seat back because it interfered with her ability to push her laptop screen up where she wanted it, so I got little to no sleep on that flight either.  I hope that lady gets stuck behind those kids on her next red eye flight.

Overall, I was blown away by the beauty and grandeur of Maui.  Almost every place we went was breathtaking and absolutely stunning, and no words or pictures can fully do it justice.  A couple of things extra that I’ll note.

Hawaiian people generally do live up to their reputation for friendliness. Most people were extremely helpful, and made you feel very welcome.

This does not necessarily extend to good service in restaurants though.  Not that the service was horrible, but other than the luau, most places we ate the waiters weren’t great about refilling drinks.  Most of the time on vacations I look at the food as one part of the equation when assessing how great the vacation was.  I kind of separate Maui from that because everything else was so awesome.  It’s not that the food was bad, it’s just that for the most part, I can’t say that it was exceptional.  I had a very good open faced crab and shrimp sandwich at Leilani’s in Whaler’s Village, and the deep dish pizza was pretty good.  Other than that, most of the restaurants were good but not great.  The one exception was the breakfast buffet at the Sheraton.  It was the best breakfast buffet I have ever had, bar none.  The food was UNBELIEVABLE…so many fruits, meats, and breads that you stuffed yourself trying to get some of everything.

The Sheraton was absolutely fabulous, both in terms of ambience and the staff.  When I return to Maui (notice I say when and not if) I definitely plan on staying there again.  The bellhop, the front desk, the concierge…everyone was extremely helpful and gracious, and the rooms were very nice.

The one thing to note about Hawaii is that it does tend to be rather pricey.  Almost everything costs money, and quite a bit more than what you would pay for at home.  Consequently, the majority of people who are there tend to be a little wealthier, and that can make poor saps like me feel a bit out of place.  That’s probably a silly thing to notice, but if you are used to moving in less affluent circles, it’s something to keep in mind.

Hope you enjoy looking at the pics and reading my take.  Overall, the most beautiful place I have ever been and one of the greatest vacations I’ve ever been on.

Day 5

Consistent with our plans to see the “big” attractions on Maui, we were leaning towards going to see Haleakala Crater this day.  However, we decided at the last minute to switch plans and head north on Highway 30, to see several things we hadn’t got to see the first time we went up there.  I’m sure that Haleakala is beautiful, but I didn’t regret this change in plans for a minute.  It turned out to be some of the best nature had to offer.

First, we checked out a beach or two on the way up there.  They were certainly beautiful, but nothing we hadn’t seen already on Maui.  Still, they were worth seeing and I wasn’t disappointed.

We then went on to a place called the Dragon’s Teeth.  This was…well, I know I’ve said it before, but it was amazing.  It’s a lava rock formation off a golf course where the surf comes CRASHING in, shooting waves up high, high, high.  The rock formations look like the teeth of a big dragon (hence it’s name) and we stayed here forever, just watching the waves come rolling in, taking pictures and enjoying the natural beauty.  It was absolutely gorgeous.

Well, after that we decided to go further north to the Nakele blowhole.  It was then that I discovered some awful news…in my zest to get good pictures, I had gotten as close to these considerably high waves as I could, and in the process had soaked both myself and my camera…and the camera was now unable to take any further pictures.  Which is heartbreaking, because as cool as the Dragon’s Teeth was, the Nakele blowhole was that much more amazing.  It is a formation of lava rock, with a hole where the sea forces water through at high tide.  They say it gets up to 70 feet when it is at its peak…and it sure seemed like it was at its peak when we were there.  You had to crawl down a rocky hillside to get to it, but once there it was one of the most beautiful sites I’ve ever seen.  Visit Heather’s blog for pictures.  Hopefully I’ll get the pics from her camera soon and post them here, but until then you can see them there.

To Be Continued…

Day 4

After Lahaina turned out to be…well, not everything we thought it was going to be, we decided that rather than continue to follow the advice to stay on the western side of the island, we would do some of the stuff we wanted to do rather than what we were recommended to do.  And one of the things I was really anxious to do was make the legendary journey along the Hana Highway.

The Hana Highway is an extremely curvy, narrow road through the rainforest of Maui, and is full of beautiful scenery, including gorgeous ocean views, luscious waterfalls, babbling brooks, and more green than you’ve ever seen in your life.  At times the road is so narrow that you have to stop and wait for oncoming traffic to make it through so you can get by.  But it is absolutely worth it, because we saw some of the most beautiful natural sites I’ve ever seen.

A few things that were a little frustrating though. Some of the waterfalls are on private grounds, and you can either overlook the No Trespassing signs or try to get permission from the owners (mostly EMI, the Maui water company).  We didn’t do the latter, and only once were we brave enough to try the former.  About ten minutes into our little hike, it started pouring down rain, so we took that as a sign and went back to the car.  So for about the first 15 miles or so we missed some of the waterfalls Maui Revealed says were quite grand.  We also didn’t go far enough along the highway and missed the Seven Sacred Pools, which I was a bit disappointed about.

That aside, we still got to see some gorgeous things, which I will share with you.  I took TONS of pictures, as did Heather, but the pictures don’t do it justice.  And I took so many, I’m not sure which to share with you.  So I’ll do my best.  I also got some video of it all, and put it on youtube.  Check it out.

To be Continued…

On to…

Day 3

It must be said here that when you only have a short time in Hawaii (we were there for roughly 5 full days) that many well intentioned souls will tell you what THEY think you ought to or ought not to do during your stay.  The two main attractions in Hawaii, the legendary Hana Highway and the Haleakala Crater, were over on the other side of the island from us.  So when people shared their opinions of what we should see via mediums like Trip Adviser, many of them said we shouldn’t bother with Hana or Haleakala either one.  Many of them, even the guidebook we were using, stated that we should plan to spend at least one day in Lahaina, a small beachfront town a few miles from Kaanapali, where whalers used to get supplies.

Let it be said, these people don’t know what they are talking about.

First, our morning.  We got up and went to the Plantation House, a golf club and restaurant that sits overlooking the ocean, and is renowned for their eggs dijon.  I had their crab eggs dijon, and I can verify that they are indeed delicious.  The view while we were eating looked like this:

That’s quite a site to eat breakfast to, and we greatly enjoyed it.  We followed the road north a little bit, finding a small, semi-secluded beach with some beautiful scenery and few people, and snapped a few photos.

By this time, though, we were both hot and thirsty, and weren’t really prepared to go farther north, although we were told there were some really beautiful things to see if we did.  Anyway, we decided to follow the advice of our guidebook and Trip Adviser friends, and spend the rest of the day in Lahaina.  We were booked for a luau in Lahaina that night at a place called The Feast at Lele, anyway, so we just went over early and checked out the town.

It was a big mistake.  I won’t say that there’s nothing to see in Lahaina, it’s just that compared to the rest of Hawaii, it’s not that spectacular.  There are some historic buildings you can see which are interesting, and they have a lot of cool shops and dining areas there, but nothing that would make you want to spend more than a few hours there, and definitely not while the sun is shining and the rest of Maui is waiting to be explored.  Most of the shops are pretty similar, selling Hawaiian shirts, shorts, and touristy trinkets.  There were two exceptions.  One was an out of the way used book shop which had some great deals (Ron, if you read this, I’ve got some books you’ll want to read).  We perused that store for over an hour, and I still didn’t get a chance to look at everything there I wanted to.  The other place was a spectacular art gallery with some amazing paintings.  I’m not exactly a patron of the arts, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Finally, we ended the day by attending the Feast at Lele.  We initially had made reservations at the Sheraton’s luau, but theirs had been canceled while we were there, and the concierge and guidebook both recommended this one.   It was a bit more pricey, but you got your own private table and a five course dinner was served to you, rather than a buffet at a big table like most luau’s.  It was magnificent…the kalua pork was the best pork I’ve ever tasted.  Dinner was a five course meal served around a Polynesian Islands theme.  The first course was Hawaiian, and then between courses they would have dances native to that island.  Second course was from New Zealand, and so on.  The food was magnificent, although Heather wasn’t crazy about some of it because she’s not a fan of seafood.  And the entertainment was top notch, too, topped off by a fire dancer.  My camera isn’t the best, so I didn’t get any good pictures, but take my word for it, it was a spectacular show that I wouldn’t hesitate to do again.

To be continued…

Well, as previously reported, I just returned from a vacation to Maui.  It was, without a doubt, the most beautiful and enchanting place I have ever been in my whole life, and I cannot wait to return there someday soon.  In the meantime, allow me to share a little bit with you about our Hawaii adventures.

Day 1 – Thanksgiving

We spent most of day 1 in the air.  We flew from St. Louis to Dallas-Fort Worth, and from there to Kahului, Maui.  The flight was mostly uneventful, although we had to switch planes due to “technical difficulties.”  I’m just thankful they figured that out before we got in the air.  Anyway, we landed in Maui around five or so, and the sun was just setting so we really didn’t get to see much of the island.  Our hotel, the Sheraton Resort on Maui, was on Kaanapali Beach, which is about 30-40 minutes away from Kahului.  We got our rental car (a dark blue Chevy Cobalt) and drove over to the hotel.  After being greeted by the very friendly staff, and given a quick rundown of things by the bellhop, we freshened up a bit and walked down the beach to a small shopping and dining area called Whaler’s Village.  We ate at a restaurant called Cane and Taro.  It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t anything to write home about.  We headed back to the Sheraton and went to bed.

Day 2

Day 2 we decided to just hang out around the hotel and beach.  We took most of our tips regarding where to go and what to do on Maui from Andrew Doughty’s great guidebook, Maui Revealed.  He gave high marks to both Kaanapali Beach and the Sheraton, so we figured we’d just explore our surroundings a little bit.  One thing to note.  We were informed upon our arrival that they had upgraded us to an ocean view room at no additional charge.  So when we stepped out on our lanai (sp?) in the morning, we were greeted to this view:

Yeah…it was pretty amazing.  Even more amazing was when you turned to your right and got this:

So we had no complaints about the view.  And we spent a lot of time standing outside our room.

Anyway, we walked down to the beach and played along the shore for a long time.  The Sheraton is near a place called Black Rock, which is like a huge rock outcropping from which people dive, snorkel, and other fun activities.  It was a very pretty place.  The ocean in Hawaii is gorgeous, so blue.  And the surf comes crashing in a lot higher than in places like Florida or California.  It was definitely the best beach I’ve ever been on, and while I’m no beach expert, I have been on multiple beaches on both the Pacific and Atlantic side.  We really enjoyed hanging out there.  Also, the Sheraton had an amazing pool that wrapped around the resort, although it was always crawling with kids.  But the grounds were just a great place to hang out and relax and really enjoy yourself.

Early in the afternoon, we had reservations with the Teralani 2, a dinner cruise catamaran.  I have to give props to the Sheraton…the concierge was extremely helpful and even got us a $40 discount on the dinner cruise.  Although our “activities coordinator” tried conning us into attending a time share meeting.  Anyway, the dinner cruise was amazing….the crew were a lot of fun, the food was good, but the best part was tooling along the coast of Maui watching a gorgeous Hawaiian sunset.  We got to see a full rainbow, which doesn’t happen too often where we live, and I was absolutely blown away by watching the beauty of Maui while off her coast.

To be continued….

Well, it has been a long while since I’ve been able to blog about anything. I’ve been pretty busy with school, work, and then vacation to the beautiful state of Hawaii.  A few things to note.

For those who have followed my post regarding journalists who use wikipedia, and in particular St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell, I was unable to verify the veracity of the Huberman quote.  Neither was the Post-Dispatch.  They issued this addendum to the column:

OCT. 17 EDITOR’S NOTE

A quote in Bryan Burwell’s column Oct. 7 attributed to Rush Limbaugh about the merits of slavery in the United States cannot be verified, and its use did not meet the Post-Dispatch’s standards for sourcing.

Limbaugh said he did not make the statement.

Burwell’s column did not identify the source of the quote, which was Jack Huberman’s 2006 book “101 People Who Are Really Screwing America.” The book provided no details about the origin of the quote. When contacted by the Post-Dispatch, Huberman said that he had a source for the quote but declined to reveal it on advice of counsel. The book’s publisher, Nation Books, did not return calls to the Post-Dispatch.

The Post-Dispatch found references attributing the quote to Limbaugh in other publications and on Internet blogs as far back as 1993, but none of those cited a source.

The Burwell column on this page is an edited version in which the quote has been removed.

I have no idea what actions, if any, Limbaugh intends to take against Huberman.  This should certainly, however, be a valuable learning experience for budding journalists about the sources they use.  Hopefully Burwell and others who attributed the quote to Limbaugh will check more carefully next time.  I do appreciate the feedback I got on this, particularly from noted Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnston.

On a lighter note, I did just return from a trip to Maui, and it was simply amazing.  I hope to soon be able to share a few of my experiences there as well as video and pictures.  Hopefully you will enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Also, several things have happened that I would have liked to blog about but due to general busy-ness failed to do so.  One of these was the awarding of the National League Cy Young Trophy to Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum.  While I don’t begrudge Lincecum the trophy (he had a fantastic season), I do believe the voting raised an interesting debate regarding the use of sabermetrics in baseball.  Maybe I’ll devote some time to that in the future. I also hope to continue my discussion of the constitutionality of secession.

Thanks for continuing to check up, and hopefully I’ll have some updates before the weekend is over.

Heather and I have started a new blog.  It’s called the Common Consumer.

We were speculating tonight on the difference between energy saving light bulbs and regular light bulbs (how much longer they actually last, whether they are really worth the extra money, etc.).  In the process, we started thinking about how cool it would be to test different products and then post our results on a blog, and so we went ahead and started one.  We’re going to test various products as well as different restaurants and then give our thoughts and opinions about each.  Feel free to share any comments or opinions about products as well, and if there’s anything in particular you would like us to test, just shoot me a message and we’ll give it a shot and let you know our opinion on it.

“Wikipedia is the best thing ever.  Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.”  ~ Michael Scott

Unless you’ve been living under a bridge, you have surely heard by now the hullabaloo surrounding conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh and his minority partnership in a bid to buy the St. Louis Rams.  Limbaugh, along with other investors led by Blues owner Dave Checketts,  approached current Rams ownership to talk about the possibility of purchasing the team.  This, predictably, set off a firestorm of controversy around the country, with columnists, sportscasters, players, and fans weighing in on whether or not the league should allow a controversial public figure like Limbaugh to own an NFL franchise. Limbaugh’s racial views have been bandied about, quotes that he has made in the past have been discussed, and accusations have been made.  The end result was that yesterday, Checketts said that rather than have the attempt to buy and keep the Rams in St. Louis be jeopardized, they were dropping Limbaugh from the group.

I’m not interested in discussion over whether Rush Limbaugh is a racist.  He has a three hour radio show in which he can speak for himself, and plenty of people listen, so the public at large can make those determinations for themselves.  What I am interested in is how this blossoming debate has further exposed the shoddy state of journalism in the twenty-first century.

At the heart of the issue lie a couple of quotes, one in particular, that has been attributed to Limbaugh from a variety of corners, everywhere from Democratic political strategist James Carville, to sports columnists Bryan Burwell and Jason Whitlock, to NBC journalist David Shuster.  The primary quote under discussion is said to have been uttered by Limbaugh in 1998:

“Let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: Slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back. I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.”

The second quote, which has gotten less attention but is no less inflammatory, is this:

“You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray (Dr. King’s assassin). We miss you, James. Godspeed.”

Obviously, if Limbaugh had actually uttered these quotes, one touting the benefits of slavery and the second honoring James Earl Ray, this would likely be enough to end his illustrious (or infamous, depending on which view of Limbaugh you have) career.

There’s one problem.  No one can seem to ascertain whether he actually said it.

Burwell, a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was one of the first to strike by touting the slavery quote.  In a column on October 7th, he chided the NFL for their greed and conservative politics, and advised them to think twice before agreeing to allow Limbaugh to even obtain minority ownership in the Rams.  Along the way, he quoted Limbaugh comparing the NFL to the Crips and the Bloods, and says those are “Limbaugh’s words.”  Which they are.  But he then goes on to say, “So are these” and gives the slavery quote.

The problem is that Burwell did not do his research when it came to the slavery statement.  In his latest column, he defends the quote, stating that it was reported in a 2006 book called  “101 People Who Are Really Screwing America” by Jack Huberman.  He goes on to state that the quote was in line with other things Limbaugh had said, so he didn’t bother to verify the quote anywhere else.  There are so many problems with this that I don’t know where to begin.  The first is that Huberman is an author who is the polar opposite of Limbaugh, an unabashed liberal (and atheist) with a vicious streak.  His written works include “The Bush-Haters Handbook,” “The GOP-Haters Handbook,” and “The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Non-Believers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound.” In his “101 People” book, he includes in his list of people who are “screwing America” a wide variety of subjects, among them J.K. Rowling, Dr. Dobson, people who buy SUV’s, and God.  So it’s not as if this is an objective source.  Using a single source for such a controversial quote is inexcusable in its own right, using a single source with such an obvious bias is doubly inexcusable.

Working in the journalism industry should tip Burwell to the fact that not everything that gets published or goes to press is fact.  Using a little known book by an obscure author with an obvious grudge to prove a point is irresponsible journalism.  Especially, and this is important, if Limbaugh’s racist overtones are so obvious.  If it’s so apparent that Limbaugh is a racist, why, of all the quotes Burwell could have apparently sourced, did he use an unsubstantiated one that could only be found one place?  The same question applies to anyone who has quoted the slavery quote over the last week or so.  If it’s so easy to find racist commentary by Rush Limbaugh, why use this particular quote?  It’s as if those using this quote just went somewhere where there was a list of alleged comments by Limbaugh, and picked a couple of the most compelling without checking to see whether they were accurate or not.

Which brings me to my next point.  What I would really like to know is whether Burwell, Whitlock, and the others who have repeated this actually did so by obtaining a copy of Jack Huberman’s book, reading it, and then quoting it.  Because there are a few other places the quote has been referenced, including a couple of anti-Limbaugh websites….and Wikipedia.

Now we all know what Wikipedia is.  Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia which is open to the public, and anyone can log on and make changes to any entry they want.  The first thing you are told by any professor in any college when talking about sources for papers is that Wikipedia is NOT an acceptable source.  That’s because people deliberately fabricate information on Wikipedia, or enter information that is unsubstantiated.  The administrators of Wikipedia try their best to make sure the information is as accurate as possible, but by its very nature, Wikipedia is a breeding ground for biased, unsubstantiated rumors and information without objectivity.  I can think of no reason whatsoever that a credible journalist would use Wikipedia as a primary or secondary source.

Now, I don’t know if Burwell, Whitlock, Carville, Shuster, or anyone else who has repeated the slavery quote got their information from Wikipedia.  Since Burwell’s column went to press, the Post-Dispatch has issued an addendum to the column noting that the quote has not yet been substantiated.  Whitlock, who quotes both the Earl Ray and slavery quote, has since updated his column to note that he got them from Huberman’s book.  Initially, both columns had stated unequivocally that the words did, in fact, belong to Limbaugh.  Once called on it, both issued clarification that they got the quotes from Huberman’s book, and nowhere else.  But color me skeptical.  I doubt Whitlock or Burwell or anyone else who has referenced the quote actually read the Huberman book.  It is MUCH more likely that they either pulled them off a website, or got them from Wikipedia.

Why Wikipedia?  Well, because with the rise of social media, journalists are more and more using unconventional methods in order to obtain information for columns or stories.  Consider this:  According to a new survey by the Middleberg Communications and the Society for New Communications Research, a whopping FIFTY-ONE PERCENT of journalists use Wikipedia to assist in their reporting.  Now, I doubt that means that fifty-one percent of journalists are using Wikipedia as a source.  After all, I’ve used Wikipedia to jump start a search, and many times the entries there contain links to the source material, which is sometimes credible.  I think it’s not unlikely that many people in that fifty-one percent might use Wikipedia in this manner, and I don’t see a particular problem with this.

However, the twenty-four hour news cycle, the flagging paper industry, the explosion of blogs and alternative media such as The Rush Limbaugh Show, have all placed an increasing amount of pressure for journalists to deliver news at breakneck speed.  Add to that the increased rancor that exists in politics today which has bled over into newsrooms, and you have the perfect storm of journalists who have a whole world of misinformation at their fingertips and a motivation to use it.  Over the last five to ten years, we’ve seen plenty of journalistic screw-ups, everything from Dan Rather and the Bush National Guard story to Newsweek’s “Koran flushing” incident, and all of them were completely avoidable.  Obviously all these aren’t connected to Wikipedia, but an over reliance on faulty or contrived sources were to blame.  Combining half of surveyed journalists in this new era of journalism with a flawed research tool like Wikipedia is a recipe for disaster.  Sure, some journalists will know that Wikipedia shouldn’t be used…and others will know that they’ve got a deadline to meet and as long as Wikipedia provides a source, why bother to check it out?

Even when the stories aren’t political, journalists get caught with their pants down (metaphorically speaking) because of their own laziness and inefficiency.  Earlier this year, when French composer Maurice Jarre passed away, Shane Fitzgerald, a student from Dublin University, decided to try an experiment. He went to Wikipedia and posted a false quote which he attributed to Jarre.  The whole process took about fifteen minutes.  And then he sat back and waited.

Wikipedia’s vetting crew found the quote and scrubbed it clean, but not before newspapers worldwide spotted it and decided it sounded plausible enough.  So they added it to obits of Jarre, even though the quote had no sources shown on Wikipedia.  It wasn’t until a month went by, and Fitzgerald finally contacted some of the news agencies responsible, that they realized that the Jarre quote was fabricated.  Only one paper publicly apologized, the Guardian from the UK.  Others either corrected the obit quietly or some not at all (it’s possible that they could have done so since the story broke several months ago).  Regardless, Fitzgerald exposed a crucial flaw in the way some journalists operate.  When in doubt, use the source anyway and apologize later.

The American Journalism Review wrote an interesting piece last year about the use of Wikipedia in newsrooms. It points out the flaws in the database, as well as noting that some journalists use it as a starting point for trying to find more credible sources. There’s some division over whether or not Wikipedia should be used, and some journalists are staunchly against it.

Asked his opinion of Wikipedia, Phillip Blanchard, the Washington Post copy editor who started testycopyeditors, responds, “I’m not sure what I could add, beyond ‘don’t use it’ and ‘it’s junk.’”

Other news rooms, though, are not so discriminating.  For instance, the Los Angeles Times, who has used Wikipedia.

Melissa McCoy, the Times’ deputy managing editor in charge of copy desks, says the paper occasionally allows Wikipedia attribution. “We’re certainly not going to use Wikipedia as a stand-alone news source, but we’re not going to exclude it if it takes us somewhere,” she says. “If a reporter spots something in there and it makes them do an extra phone call, it’s silly” not to use it.

Ultimately though, the AJR piece concludes by  quoting David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter from the New York Times, who says:  “No matter who your sources are, when you sign your name, you are responsible for every word, every thought, every concept.”

Which brings us back to Burwell, Whitlock and company.  Regardless of what you think about Rush Limbaugh, looking at it objectively, the shoddy journalism exhibited ought to bring down serious repercussions and instigate a larger debate about how journalism is conducted in the age of Technology.  Burwell could use this opportunity to admit that he was too lazy to do some digging and find out whether the quote was accurate.  He could admit that his research methods are flawed, that if the quote is left unsubstantiated it will bring further reproach to the Post-Dispatch, and that moving forward, in the future, he’ll try not to be such a lazy, inefficient screw-up.  He could even state that he’s sorry while STILL saying he disagrees with Limbaugh’s inclusion in the ownership group.

Instead, Burwell has this to say:

Fine, let’s play along for the time being and take him at his word that he was inaccurately quoted in the Huberman book. Heck, let’s go along for the full ride and believe that it was all a horrible “fabrication.”

So what are we left with?

Well, essentially, I think we just threw a deck chair off the Titanic.

Fine.  Let’s play along for the time being and pretend that Burwell’s use of the quote wasn’t a shoddy piece of journalism.

What are we left with?

In my opinion, a deliberate and malicious hack job by a loud mouth, know-it-all sportscaster who’s so egotistical that spots for his radio show tell us he’s “completely full of himself.”  A more accurate description of Burwell would be “completely full of crap.”

This past weekend was quite relaxing.  On Friday night, Heather and I went to an off-Broadway production of the Phantom of the Opera that was playing at the Fox theater.  I’ve been to the Fox several times before, but this was the first time I had seen Phantom there.  All in all, it was pretty impressive.

If you live in the St. Louis area and you’ve never been to the Fox, you owe it to yourself to go there at least once.  It’s an amazing place, built back in the 1920’s as an old movie house, but it’s been renovated and restored and now hosts all sorts of concerts and theater events.  The main feature of the Fox is a gigantic stained glass chandelier that hangs from the ceiling, high above the balcony.  It’s an impressive sight.  There are intricate carvings on the walls, and it definitely has the ambiance of an old fashioned Victorian type theater, with sweeping staircases and vintage woodwork.

Every production I’ve seen at the Fox has been first class (several of them were off Broadway shows), and Phantom was no exception.  For those unfamiliar with the Phantom of the Opera (that will probably be relatively few of you), it is about a musical genius who lives in the Paris sewers and haunts an opera house.  He’s in love with a musical prodigy named Christine, but is heartbroken when he finds she is in love with a childhood friend named Raoul.  In his despair and anger, he causes several accidents to occur at the opera house, only ceasing his war against the place if Christine will agree to perform in an opera written by him.

I saw the movie Phantom of the Opera several years ago, with Gerard Butler as the titular Phantom, and Christine being portrayed by Emmy Rossum.  It’s ok, I guess…I’m not in love with the story of the Phantom.  I think you are supposed to feel a measure of sympathy for him, but I just thought him annoying.  He whines incessantly about how unfair everything is, and throughout the story he’s constantly using his hypnotic musical powers to try to seduce Christine into obeying his will.  The music has kind of ominous overtones, and the whole thing is kind of a tug of war between the Phantom and Raoul over the soul of Christine.

I enjoyed the theater production much more than the movie.  The music is the same, but it just seemed more vibrant and intriguing when done live.  There is a bit more humor and lightheartedness injected into the stage production of the story, and I thought the characters were a bit more sympathetic, although I still found the Phantom to be an annoying whiner.  The effects are amazing…there is one scene where the Phantom captures Christine and leads her to his home in the dank Paris underworld, and lights flicker as though they were candles, and fog covers the stage making it appear as if the boat they are in is actually on water.  Just a top notch production, very compelling and enjoyable.  It’s only in the Fox for a few more weeks, but if you get a chance, I strongly recommend that you get out and see it.

The second thing we did was go to the Soulard Farmer’s Market, just outside of downtown St. Louis.  This was a first for me, but my wife had heard about it and wanted to go check it out.  So we invited our good friends Ben and Bonnie Meydam, and we all drove over to see what the Farmers Market was all about.

Turns out is pretty amazing.  It is a huge live market where farmers and others bring fresh vegetables, meat, fruits, flowers, and other items and sell them from day to day.  It is MUCH cheaper to buy these items at the Soulard Farmers Market than it is to buy them at a local grocers.  I saw a 50 lb. bag of carrots being sold for five dollars.  Small buckets of apples were being sold for a dollar, and a bag of onions was being sold for a dollar.  They have a huge meat market with every kind of meat you can think of, from bison to alligator to lamb to beef.  Many of the vendors sold their own bacon, sausage, chicken wings, and other kinds of meat for extraordinarily cheap prices.  And the closer it gets to the end of the day, the lower the prices go.  We got tons of vegetables, including apples, avocados, limes, onions, and lettuce for twelve dollars.  Unfortunately, we weren’t far sighted enough to bring a cooler for the meat, otherwise they had some cajun brats I would love to have gotten.  They also had shops full of home made preserves, spices, etc.  I was highly impressed, and we will definitely be going back there to get groceries.

Oktoberfest was going on in Soulard on Saturday.  We briefly thought about going in, but decided against it.  I’m sure it would’ve been interesting, but we weren’t sure it would have been worth the money.