Internet Irony: News Sites Rewriting Year-Old Stories On Dementia
A new series of online stories touts the Internet’s ability to help ward off dementia. The only problem: The editors publishing the stories appear to be suffering from dementia.
File this one under sweet, sweet irony: Numerous online publications are currently writing about some “new” research that shows surfing the Web can improve brain functionality. The research, however, was actually published — and widely discussed — last year.
The headlines are hitting RSS readers hard this Monday, many of them from major news sites such as the U.K.’s Daily Mail and Times Online. The stories cite a UCLA study that found searching the Net boosts senior citizens’ brain power and helps keep conditions such as dementia from developing.
The study, led by UCLA psychiatrist Gary Small, came out nearly one year ago to the day. And — here’s the real punchline — many of the same publications writing about it today also wrote about it back then. Even better, their 2008 stories include the same word-for-word quotes as their 2009 editions. (The quotes come from a UCLA press release distributed on October 14, 2008.)
Behold:
- The Daily Mail, October 19, 2009 [Screenshot (PDF)]
- The Daily Mail, October 14, 2008 [Screenshot (PDF)]
- Times Online, October 19, 2009 [Screenshot (PDF)]
- Times Online, November 2, 2008 [Screenshot (PDF)]
- The Straits Times, October 19, 2009* [Screenshot (PDF)]
- The Straits Times, October 15, 2008* [Screenshot (PDF)]
Boy. All this dementia sure is giving us some serious déjà vu. Speaking of which, did you hear that some news sites are rewriting year-old stories on dementia?
Note: The story links cited above are all active as of this publication. Some of the sites may very well take down their 2009 rewrites once they realize their dementia-like mistakes (the Telegraph appears to have already done just that). That’s why we’ve included screenshots above as well, in case any of the live links suddenly go dead.
*In this instance, both the 2008 and 2009 stories are listed as “breaking news.” The “broken news” banner, evidently, was not available.
(Image: Photobucket)
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