Babbling Idiots
filed on Thursday, November 18, 2004 at 2:13:56 AM CST

You know, it's been ages since I entered anything into my little journal out here in cyberspace, and sadly, I find myself making a journal entry about idiotic journalistic endeavors.  It's amazing what people will take as fact simply because they found it out on the internet.  I've got friends and family who panic at every little email that tells them that they might get third degree facial burns from water exploding during a kinetic reaction when they open the door to their microwave, or get excited at every little "Microsoft will pay you $250 for every person you forward this email to regardless of the fact that it would cost Microsoft a few billion dollars following the mathematical chain that you yourself could cause" email.

I suppose I should have just left well enough alone.  Perhaps I just don't learn.

You see, a few months back, an online "friend" of mine who used to play Ultima Online exstensively got in a snit about something going on in-game that he was barely third-hand party to, and got upset when I and others (mostly I) told him where to go when he started jumping up and down and telling us all how things should be.  I used to have a great deal of respect for this particular person.  A respect that has since faded.  You see, shortly after that incident, a couple of folks on the message boards for his website got into a discussion about Venezeulan politics.  Of course, they disagreed.  But these two folks at least had the decency to come in and have a point.  Arguements with factoids to back up their side (though, as anyone can guess, they were contradictory facts to each other, as often is the case in politics).  In comes the man who runs the site... "Wow, that was perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever read, Jacob.. congratulations!"  Yep... the only arguement he could make.

Well, I popped in, made a rather rude comparison between him and a former cry-baby who took his toys and ran away when the going got rough in Ultima, and lo and behold, I'm banned from his message boards.  Quite an effective ban too, considering I have access to no less than five different IP addresses, and was able to follow the fallout of my banning.  I respect that I've been banned, however, and have not made an additional post on that forum, no matter how much I feel like it.  Like this morning.

See, I pop in to check up what's going on over there from time to time because old habits die hard.  And I check up on his weblog from time to time just to see what he has to say.  Recently, I've felt like clawing my eyes out, and remapping the URL to his site to something that actually has something intelligent to say on a regular basis.

I found many, many articles; I hadn't been there for quite some time.  Some cute, quirky information that I already knew, but certainly enjoyable random factoids.  I suppose it's this kind of stuff I like reading, and what keeps me coming back.  Then I get down to an article about Erin Brockovich.

Yes, yes, we all know the name.  Many of us know the story.  Good ol' Klaitu (the guy who runs the site) found an article by a man named Michael Fumento that purports that Chromium-6 doesn't have the effects that were claimed, and that the lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric was based on false information, basically saying good old Brockovich convinced people they were experiencing adverse affects.

Pertinent Articles
Original Article.
Brockovich's Rebuttal.

I'll let you read up on them yourselves.  Basically, Fumento presents factoids from a couple of sources.  Brockovich rebutts that the courtroom cases was based on tons of scientific evidence and testimony (which one would expect would be the case... good lord, we've seen how the California court system works), and then Fumento responds that she's just trying to obsfucate the facts, and doesn't bother respond with any reference material.

Big whoop.  Fumento's article no more proves the case false than her response proves it true.  Apparently the jury must have found the facts supportive of the case however.  Regardless, what irks me isn't so much that he puts the article up on his site, or even discusses it.  It's his sanctimonious statement that, "You know, when I first saw this movie, I had a inkling about this.. I found it odd that one material could cause such a wide-array of medical problems. Think of Radiation poisoning, for instance.. the symptoms of exposure to radiation are always the same.. why would exposure to chromium-6 result in all sorts of seemingly unrelated symptoms?"

Basically, he found himself an article on the web that interested him.  Without so much as bothering to research the facts himself, he's decided that he was correct in his "inking," and that Michael Fumento's arguement is the correct one.  That kind of stuff just irks me.  If you're going to go around the world thinking, and commenting on various things, at least have an opinion of your own.  Sure, you can have an opinion that matches someone else, but you should at least have a basis for your own opinion that goes above and beyond an "inkling," and then jumping aboard a ship that's sailing in the direction your own thoughts are flowing.

His favorite quote:  "The real story of Erin Brockovich is simply this. A woman with no medical background goes to a small town and convinces residents that virtually every illness they've ever had, from cancer to rashes, are all related and all caused by a nearby corporation worth almost $30 billion. Join our suit, she says, and I'll get you megabucks. They do, they get a settlement, and Brockovich's colleagues snatch away a cut of over $133 million. Brockovich gets more than $2 million. Only in Hollywood could such a person be made a heroine."

Oddly enough, I have a new favorite quote that relates directly to his idiotic and blind faith following of what Michael Fumento has to say:  "Wow, that was perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever read, Klaitu.. congratulations!"

At least, however, I've taken the time to explain my reasons.