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Forget The Wii Porn Menace; Perhaps We Should Be Worried About Reporters Getting Their Facts Wrong
from the just-saying dept
Remember the sensationalistic story from earlier this week about great big Wii porn menace? The one that seemed somewhat disconnected from, well, reality? Rick Klau read the story here and decided to investigate a little bit. In the story, the reporter claims that kids are already using their Wiis for porn, saying: "Young kids get it. In a blog, one child boasted, "The first thing I thought of when I downloaded the Wii browser was also porn." That made Rick a little curious, since the sourcing was entirely anonymous. He went searching through the various blog search engines to find the "one child" who made that "boast." What he found was that it wasn't in a blog post, but in a comment on the gaming blog Kotaku... and that the commenter is pretty clearly not a kid. In fact, his actual comment was taken out of context. What he said was: "Like any red blooded American male ages 18-45, the first thing I thought of when I downloaded the Wii browser was also porn." In other words, he's not a child at all, and actually said it in the quote -- but that didn't fit the reporter's story, so she apparently left it out. Furthermore, that sentence was immediately followed up with a comment about the Wii filters (which the reporter claimed didn't exist) and a joke. The line about the porn was a setup to the joke. So, just about everything about it was wrong. The comment wasn't from a kid. It wasn't serious. And, most importantly, the comment pointed out that there were Nintendo filters, which the reporter claims don't exist. I have to admit that I'm a lot less worried about kids surfing porn with their Wiis than I am about the training of some reporters these days.
Reader Comments
(Flattened / Threaded)
I think...
I think the reporter is just jealous cause (s)he didnt get a wii for christmas.
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A reporter with shaky facts... nothing new there, lol
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Wii webbrowsing sucks
I have a Wii I was very excited when I logged in and could download Opera. I opened it and went to a website. Typing the url in is not that hard but a keyboard is WAY better. The problem I have is resolution. If you want to read something you have to zoom in to read it then zoom back out to do anything else. I went to one site. Closed opera and have yet to even try and open it again.
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Bravo!
I must say Bravo to this post. The public must remember that reporters are employed individuals that are paid based on the content they are able to develop. Of course there is a conflict of interest. A reporter is generally more inclined to write a story and distort the facts in a way that makes the finished product more decisive. This is just another prime example of one of the many problems associated with the mainstream media.
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Its all made up and/or blown out of proportion anyway.
Down with reportes! Down with the news!
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Re:
you are an idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dan
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Oops
Up with the preview button! Up with spellcheckers!
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Re: Oops
Nice one Centurion!
It was annoying at first, now it's just tiring. Why don't we ban cars? They help transport pedophiles to rendezvous's with under-age kids. Phones will have to go too, they're far too easy for a child to use and really, there's no security on who they can talk to, they just have to dial a number...... Lips, you can talk with lips. And loose ones sink ships.... Also, any kind of viewing apparatus, like eyes. Definitely a bad thing.....
In fact - let's just kill everyone over 13 now and save us all the trouble.
We have to PROTECT THE CHILDREN!
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Re: Oops
Nice. I suppose you would like to live in the dark ages also?
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Re: Re: Oops
You're sarcastic-humor detector is broken sir.
Oh, shit. We'll have to get rid of anything funny now too I suppose.
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I knew I heard about this before
It was in the last post to the last story about this. #77 by MM
But I'd have to say, I never did think Wii + Browser = porn. not until the first article came out. So, if I was a parent, I don't know if I would have thought to block anything. Even though, I wouldn't blame the Wii in any way that would have been my mistake.
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Yet another example of our institutions of higher learning being more concerned with the political leanings of their graduates than they are with encouraging (teaching) objectivity and fairness. Ms Shelly Slater is a shining example of that.
" Game console can be porn gateway
11:20 AM CST on Tuesday, January 9, 2007
By SHELLY SLATER / WFAA-TV"
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Reporters have been getting facts wrong since Johannes Gutenberg blessed us with the printing press and it's only going to get worse. Now that reporters site bullshit such as blogs, tabloids and "unnamed sources" they can pass the blame for the error right down the line and never pay the price. Most reporters are morons, and the few who actually DO care about factual correctness are squashed by the truckloads of assholes who just want some glory for breaking the next big story.
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If you want to surf the web on your game console get a PS3. At least I can hook up a mouse and keyboard to navigate instead of pointing that damn hand at shit.
by the way I have a PS3 and Wii so I'm not flaming the Wii. I actually like it alot, but it's stricly for gaming and nothing else.
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Next step
If you're certain of this, send a copy of your blog posting and the links to all relevant research to the obbudsman for the newspaper. Feel free to also send copies to major news sources so that they can properly discredit the story.
You can take things further if you want. Reporters are not allowed to make things up and their reputations can be sullied for life if you're really feeling vindictive. No major paper will hire anyone who does as bad a job as that - which leaves the Penny Tattler and World News.
Was it really so awful that you never want the reporter to write ever again? If not, stick with the paper in question plus the major news sources.
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Why do youi need to browse the internet with your GAMING console, just use your damn computer. And its been my experience that it is nearly impossible to stop kids from viewing porn anyway.
Journalists just can't resist sensationalism so what do you expect.
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Reporters will always want to report a story and sometimes forget to check their facts first just to get a story out (not good).
Saying that we must still keep an eye out on our children as the web does make it easy for children too see things they should not and with the web getting easier to access on the move this will be a harder and harder job.
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Inanity
I saw no opportunity for segue into a discussion about the PS3 providing a better web surfing experience, A.C. This thread was about concerns relating internet porn to game console access. In other words, it was an 'adult' conversation.
If you want to surf the web A.C., , spend your PS3 money on a PC.
Oh, I know...then you wouldn't have a Blu-Ray player. The horror.
"I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have a Blu-Ray player to watch all 125 movies currently available."
You fanboyz jump at any opportunity (even at the peril of going off on some far tangent), to extol the virtues of the PS3, even if that means making sure everyone knows the PS3 can surf porn better and easier than the Wii.
Do you fanboyz always quake and piss yourselves like a nervous Chihuahua when someone suggests there's something the PS3 can't do better?!
Now go outside and play; the grownups are talking.
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Re: Inanity
Didn't he state that he owned a Wii as well? And web surfing is related to the topic at hand. AND I saw no opportunity to segue into talking about Blu-Ray capability. Just a horrible post on your part.
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Who
I curious to who the report was and who (s)he worked for ?
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Report
This is simple to fix. Where was the article from again? Write the guy's boss, forward this article. If you don't, I will. :)
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Re: Report
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa07018_wz_wiiporn.2073d3ef.html
By SHELLY SLATER / WFAA-TV
Send this article into the complaint area of the following:
http://www.wfaa.com/customerservice/helpcenter.jsp
Looks like SHELLY SLATER will have some explaining to do to her boss.
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Re: Re: Report
Make sure you send a copy to Shelly too.
sslater@wfaa.com
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All Posters
It would be nice is people learned to spell and use language correctly... e.g. someone used the word "site" when they were really after the word "cite"... spell checkers are pretty good at what they do, but it helps to know the language as well...
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Re: my bad!
er... that was supposed to be "if" ... not is... It would be nice IF I could actually look at what I try to type now and then!!
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All Posters by Wolf0579
It would be nice - IF - people learned to spell and use language correctly... lol
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I've done the same thing - sorry for bustin' on you. : )
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Hey look, there goes the original topic.... aw shucks, you guys missed it.....
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
I can't stop !!!!!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
What a big shame!!!!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha haHa ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
This shamen reporter are commited to create some problem to nintendo????? HHHHoooooowwwww NNNNoooooo!!!
I thin k I'll buy on Wii box in order to see some XXX sites - awesome!!! - HIPE !!!!!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha haHa ha ha ha ha haHa ha ha ha ha ha!!!!
I can't breath!! :)
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training?
it's got nothing to do with training- it's ethics: that can't be trained when they are being trained to make money. shock value over truth- who would listen to or click on this story if it were accurate? they have to have some content to post, fill airtime, sell ads. Just like this site sometimes has to overreact to potential technology restrictions to get us to click on it...except Mike's not stupid and I generally agree with him!
Any kid looking for p0rn on the wii browser is not going to made less innocent by finding it...probably just happier.
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Like any red blooded American male ages 18-45, the first thing I thought of when I downloaded the Wii browser was also porn
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reporter
a reporter who didn't read everything, and compleatly botched the entire quote. and then ruiend sombody lives just to get a front page....
nah.. that kind of stuff dont happen, its fake
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Re: reporter
First off, I really doubt this wil ruin anyone's life. Maybe a couple kids in the Dallas area won't get a Wii, but that's about it.
Also, the saddest part of this is it isn't front page material. Its a little blurb on the website that most likely didn't even make it into print. It was written by someone so low on the totem pole that they didn't get their name on the byline. These are the same pathetic rumor mongers in grade school who were always looking to weasel some bit of dirt so they can spread it around and have people pay attention to them for a while. These reporters will be pushing paper around a desk for the rest of their lives and maybe one or two will ever have their name in print. The author of this particular article is not one of them.
Sensationalism is an act of desperation, either to get noticed or stay on top. There are too many idiots who pay attention to it for people to stop trying, so we might as well ridicule these small fractions of a reporter (thanks Aaron) until they shut up. Go tell their boss to fire whoever worked on this article.
http://www.wfaa.com/customerservice/HelpCenter.do
Watch Digg and BoingBoing and Fark and whatever - but instead of just reading the articles and then each other's posts, hold these people accountable before they're allowed to do any more damage.
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Inanity
First post, but have read a lot of posts and getting a little tired of some of the ignorant people posting comments when they can't even take the time to read what others have said.
What is it with everyone posting comments to bash on people when they don't really read any of the posts?
He stated he owned both of the Wii and PS3, he also mentioned that he could hook up a mouse and keyboard to the PS3, which WOULD make it easier to browse the internet.
If people want to use their gaming systems to browse the internet, then so be it. I don't understand why everyone gets so upset when others decide to do something outside of the way YOU would normally do things.
Give it all a rest.
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Like any red blooded American male ages 18-45, the first thing I thought of when I heard the words Wii and porn in the same sentence was an adult video game.
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Reporters' training
It's not their training I worry about but their ethics. That NYT guy who falsified one story after another is just the tip of the iceberg. I have come to believe that I can believe only what I experience, and even then no more that 10 or 15%.
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At the expense of the truth
The problem with reporters today is the sense that they can skip the truth if it is necessary to push what they think is a moral imperative. We have seen this through history but in the past 20 year it is becoming epidemic in nature.
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Re: At the expense of the truth
Amen Brother.
It's not just reporting either. The reasons for the war in Iraq were transparently ridiculous, but the same public who blindly ignored them are now equally as happy because some obscure victory (killing one man) has been gained.
Until people start to question EVERYTHING they are told, there will be no change. And no progress.
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I did a search for wii porn and I found this article, how disapointing.
p.s. I'm posting from my Wii
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Have you seen this Shelly Slater on tv not really the brightest bulb now is she... and this proves it.
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hello friends
hello to all
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Finally, someone gets hard proof that this crap is indeed crap. This journalist is truly on the low end of the totem pole: formatting and citation rules for journalism (few of which were followed in the refered article) require showing your sources honestly and in detail. This writer is nothing but a lier and a poser.
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well said man. alota retarded stuff goin around bout the wii
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so can you download porn?
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