Cite Your Sources
I recently came across a blog entry that claims the ACLU hates Christians and loves Muslims, of course written by the type of fundamentalist Christian who thinks Harry Potter will lead children to getting involved with magic and demons. It’s mainly just a list references to articles and other blog entries that agree with his position.
The first reference I looked at mentioned a federal lawsuit against a school district that was interesting enough to look into. But I soon became more interested in tracking down the ridiculous chain of references that never really lead to a reliable original source.
Here’s the deal: A personal blog cites another personal blog which cites an article on StopTheACLU.com which cites another article on StopTheACLU.com which cites an article on WorldNetDaily which cites six other articles on WorldNetDaily all about the same lawsuit. Each article on WorldNetDaily adds to the story, making it slightly more sensational each time. (The WorldNetDaily produces such fine articles as Soy is making kids ‘gay’.)
The original article on WorldNetDaily, upon which the others were based, refers only to “ASSIST News Service”. But it doesn’t actually link to the ASSIST article, and it doesn’t even link to the homepage of ASSIST News Service. Instead, it links to the homepage of ASSIST Ministries, which in turn links to the ASSIST News Service. There, you can find this article which only refers to the homepage of the law firm which brought the case. A federal case against a school, and ASSIST couldn’t find anything about it on the internet to link to other than the firm which brought the case?
I bet many writers excuse idirect sources by claiming they’re being polite by giving credit to the people who got the information to them. But if that were really true, they would simply include the indirect source along with the original source. But they don’t do that.
Looking around for more information about this case, I learned that other sources weren’t much better. Even the BBC article on the lawsuit only links to the website of the school district. None of the articles discussing this case give a case number or anything else which could be used to learn more about the case.
Many articles, essays, and blog entries are this way. Most writers are too lazy to find good references, even when it’s obvious they should exist. (e.g. a federal lawsuit should be listed on a government website) It’s a sad state of affairs. (Not that I’m any better.)




