“They would not and by law they could not say it on TV if it were not true.”

Normally the last thing on earth I have time or inclination to do is watch Fox News in the afternoon. Butt since Raj is immobile these days he happened to be watching yesterday as this news allegory played out. He then backed it up and insisted I watch the entire 30 minute segment. It was painful so I’ll summarize for you. (all times are approximate)

2:45 pm: Mike Tobin on site near Pennsylvania and North Avenues in Baltimore calls into Fox News with breaking news about a shooting in Baltimore that he was eye witness to and reports “as he was running away, that police officer drew his weapon and fired and struck the individual who was running away.” 

3:01 pm: Tobin reports to Shepard Smith that he witnessed this go down as it happened about 40 yards from the car he was sitting in, preparing for his next “on air” report. He further reports that he didn’t actually see the man’s wound but reported the young victim looked to be “in bad shape.”

3:15 pm:  Shep goes to Leland Vittert on scene who is now interviewing Tiffany, a young black woman who was an eye witness to the shooting.

In the course of interviewing the distraught Tiffany, Leland asks her to relate what she saw as the police “shot and killed” the young man. Hearing for the first time that the “boy” was dead, Tiffany begins to grow hysterical. She gives a chilling report of how she just saw a policeman chase down and shoot an unarmed black boy in the back.

“Police just got out of the car and started chasing the boy,” the woman recalled. “And then he ran down towards the Metro PCS, the officer got in the middle of the street and he shot that boy in his back in my face.”

The woman also said the man was unarmed and she wouldn’t believe anything police said about the incident.

“This is what they are going to say,” she said, adding that she “watched it with my own eyes.”

3:18 pm: A commander with the Baltimore Police Department at the scene told a journalist with the Baltimore Sun that authorities were trying to arrest an armed man when that person’s gun fell and went off.

3:20 pm: Back to Mike Tobin who now reports to Shep that he had only heard a single gunshot, and did not actually see anyone fire a weapon. There was a row of parked cars between him and the scene, he admitted. Butt there was a revolver on the ground.

3:23 pm: Baltimore police report there was no shooting.

Whoops!

Apparently the young man’s gun went off when he dropped it and he was taken to the hospital out of “an abundance of caution” – because, you know, they didn’t take Freddie to the hospital in time. Turns out there was nothing wrong with the young black boy arrested for having a handgun that he may or may not have been brandishing at the time of his arrest.

Wait, what? No shooting? Butt we just heard about it on Fox News. They’re the good guys in this news racket, right? Right!?!

So what have we discovered here? 1. There’s a reason God gave you the gift of skepticism, use it. 2. “Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see” is an old saying for a good reason. 3. Be sure to use that gift of skepticism God gave you.

And what about “they would not, and could not, say it if it wasn’t true”? That only applies to important things, like advertising, not news and politics. So you can be certain of only one constant; the carnival of errors will continue…

And as Calvin discovered to his great disappointment, it doesn’t even apply in advertising. Or Obamacare:

Read the complete Obamacare Allegory