Some people say…….

…. that I have green eyes.

Some people say…….

……. that the Loch Ness Monster is real.

Some people say……..

……. that they saw Elvis just last week (for real!)

and some people say……..

……. that Fox News is Fair and Balanced.

No matter which news station you watch, or listen to, or which news source you read in newspaper, magazine or electronic form – watch for that key phrase:

Some people say

It’s a cop out. It let’s the person saying it/writing it introduce their own spin on whatever the topic might be. There is no real source, no basis in scientific fact – just this very vague “You know, SOME people say….”

And yes, I threw in that Fox News reference above because they are the Kings of unsourced innuendo beginning with “Some people say…” but quite frankly I lookse respect for ANY so-called news source using that phrase.

Meanwhile – here’s a refreshing paragraph from Steve Coll of New Yorker magazine writing about finally getting corroboration on an old tidbit about Osama Bin Laden purportedly spending two weeks in the US when he was much younger (dispelling some theories that he had no real sense of Western culture) :

In that story, I also reported Batarfi’s on-the-record but unconfirmed account of Osama’s visit to America; Batarfi believed the travel had occurred not long before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in 1979. U.S. customs and immigration records from the relevant period had been routinely destroyed—and so the question of whether Osama had personal experience of America, and what that experience might have been, remained elusive. (Bin Laden has never referred to any trip to this country in his writings or statements.) While I found Batarfi to be credible, a single-source account, based on hearsay, could hardly be regarded as satisfactory (emphasis mine).

How refreshing! A reporter who still relies on the old standby of at least TWO solid references/sources of information before believing it’s credible! I think this guy needs to conduct a little refresher course for just about EVERYONE ELSE right now!!