It's not even "journalism," it's just the Web 2.0 era has given any and every crank a mouthpiece, and there are plenty of incentives to invent clickbait. Behold the wonders of unfiltered social media!
I do kinda miss the days where it was just all dial up modems, BBSes/listservs.
Not to digress too far from the thread topic, but one of the reasons I got out of the journalism biz was because formerly responsible outlets were relaxing sourcing requirements to get the scoop. It's a survival technique in the age of the Internet, and most news orgs are struggling to stay a step ahead of extinction. With a workforce reduction thanks to large cuts in revenue, the orgs are doing twice the work with a quarter of the staff - which leads those staffers to pass along questionably-sourced rumor and information and then either a) pretend like they only did so to debunk it later or b) hope that the millennial ADHD will allow their errors to sink into the collective amnesia.
Urgh, sorry, I tend to soapbox a lot on this topic. Back to the roster. Lessio is not playing tonight, apparently, and Erat will be on the fourth line. Also, Smith is in net.
