4

CNN Tampers With An Interview And Gets Called Out

When John Cena, the most famous wrestler in the WWE, sat down with CNN for their documentary Death Grip: Inside Pro Wrestling, he was ready for real questions. And they came:

CNN: "Have you ever used steroids?"

He gave a real answer:

Cena: "Absolutely not."

CNN

Well, moving on we get into --

CNN: "Are you sure?"

W-what? Did they think he didn't hear the question? Did they expect him to snap his fingers and go "oh shit, wait, I meant 'I do all of the steroids, all of the time.' Sorry"?

Cena, visibly frustrated, pointed out how hard it is for exceptional athletes to endure these media trials, wherein they are automatically suspected of using drugs, and only end up looking defensive if they refute allegations. A fair point. Aaaaaand here's how they ran the segment:

Making an upstanding professional wrestler look no better than a common politician.

3

Fox News Childishly Alters New York Times Journalists' Photos

We tried our best to exclude channels that have the credibility of used car salesmen, but this is pretty low even by their standards.

When Jacques Steinberg of The New York Times wrote a piece on cable news which, among other things, pointed out that Fox News' rivals were fast catching up on them in terms of ratings, he must have been expecting some kind of response. He probably didn't expect the journalistic equivalent of Fox drawing crude sketches of him surrounded by stink lines.

While co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade discussed Steinberg's piece, Fox gleefully put up pictures of Steinberg and Times television editor Steven Reddicliffe, both edited into wacky cartoon caricatures:

Fox News/Wiki Commons

2

The Boston Globe Doesn't "Get" Facts

On the 12th of May, 2004, Boston residents had their morning significantly soured thanks to a set of horrific images published by The Boston Globe. The images were part of a report on a war crimes expose, and depicted United States soldiers abusing and raping Iraqi women at gunpoint. It was a stirring reminder of the brutality of war, and the stark dehumanization that lies in its wake.

George Rizer/Boston Globe

Now, leaving aside whether or not you want explicit war-crime photos front and center before you've even had your corn flakes (odds are, you don't -- that's firmly "after coffee" territory), the images were never authenticated. That's a bold move - to see some graphic sex-horror and just be like "yeah, get the whole family in on this," before doing your actual fact-checking -- luckily, the Globe learned from their mistakes and managed to tighten up their system ... for almost a year. On April 12, 2005, The Globe ran an article covering the Halifax Seal Hunt, an annual "entertainment" event held in Halifax, Canada, where people gather for a fun day of casual seal-murdering. Writer Barbara Stewart described the barbarism of the event in vivid detail, including specific, gut-wrenching details of baby seal slaughter, waters turning red with blood, and the useless protests of animal rights groups. It would have made for a heart-rending tale ... had it not been for the fact that the hunt hadn't yet even started on the day the story ran, and was further postponed because of shitty weather.

1

The News Uses Special Effects

In 1986, CBS did a 60 Minutes piece about sudden, unintended acceleration in Audi 5000 models, which led to a series of recalls, and a blemish on the brand's image. 60 Minutes demonstrated on camera that the test car was experiencing bouts of sudden accelerating, despite the driver's foot being firmly on the brake, and the company's reputation lay in ruins. The camera doesn't lie, does it?

The camera might not, but CBS sure as shit does. Conveniently off camera, an expert the channel used had rigged the car, by drilling a hole in the vehicle's transmission, and installing a hidden compressed-air pump system which held the accelerator down without the driver doing a thing. The public never saw this -- just the car speeding away unprompted.

CBS

It wasn't an isolated incident: In 1981, in yet another 60 Minutes segment, CBS proved that certain kinds of wheels used on heavy trucks were liable to randomly explode like artillery shells, creating a significant hazard for both mechanics and pedestrians. What they forgot to mention was that they had carefully shaved off the locking mechanism that kept the rims in place prior to the test. When the doctored wheels still refused to misbehave, they kept repeating the test, shaving off more and more of the metal each time. It wasn't until 70 percent of the mechanism was gone that they finally got their explosion -- and their story -- out of the ordeal. But don't worry: They got what they deserved.

An... Emmy?

Shit.

Emmys.com

Not that CBS is the only player in the vehicle sabotage game: In 1992, NBC reported on the unfortunate tendency for General Motors pick-up trucks to catch fire after crashing. Which should have come as no surprise, seeing as NBC had used freakin' incendiary devices to do so.

NBC

They, at least, issued an apology, stating that, after a long period of deliberation, they'd decided such "unscientific demonstrations" shouldn't be aired in context of actual proof. Remember: That was their new policy. Up until 1992, under the old policy, basically everything may as well have been special effects.

Dibyajyoti Lahiri is the guy who would mimic the teacher in school and have his friends in splits. Unfortunately, mainstream news media is yet to wake up to his talents. Get in touch with him on Twitter.

For more reasons to never trust anything ever again, check out The 5 Ballsiest Lies The Mainstream Media Passed Off As Fact and The 19 Most Outrageous Lies Circulating On The Internet.

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