Day 12: Crisis of truth

We're having a crisis of truth in this country, and it's not just the fringe websites and social media accounts pushing conspiracy theories. It's people who consider themselves journalists pushing stories based on anonymous sources that are immediately proven false with absolutely no repercussions.

Today's example, courtesy of Jennifer Bendery Senior politics reporter for HuffPost and President of Washington Press Club Foundation:

A source at NASA just fumed about Mike Pence and Karen Pence hanging around the Kennedy Space Center without masks for the SpaceX launch on Sunday.

Did they at least wear masks for part of the time?

"Of course not."

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) November 17, 2020

Oh! The Vice President was at NASA without a mask! Well, I suppose we can trust that one anonymous source, right? Or maybe you could have contacted Mike Pence's Communiations Director instead.

Hey @jbendery, you should get a better source. https://t.co/CPwyMu6GGm pic.twitter.com/o1FizT1kM8

— Katie Miller (@VPComDir) November 17, 2020

BOOM! Expect the tweet to be deleted and everyone conveniently forget the original lie that vanished in the face of photographic evidence. Next time, though, there may not BE photographic evidence. And the "journalist" spreading lies from an anonymous "source" might be spreading them about YOU instead.