Virus Scares and False Authority Syndrome

Fifth of Five writes: "Ran across this article on the IS-IT-TRUE.org site regarding False Authority Syndrome and the spread of virus misinformation by the media, users and Folks Who Probably Ought To Know Better. If you've ever watched the TV news and gritted your teeth over what is being presented as 'fact' this may shine some light on just how it got to be like this."

Comments

Our domain of knowledge

[feed_me_cereal]

Being knowledgable of technical stuff like "what viruses can really do" is the specific domain of knowledge we slashdot readers have. This makes me wonder, not being an expert on many other things, just how much mis-information is propagated through the news. I never watch the news anymore. All you see are disaster reports and attempts to make 40-year-old, middle-class americans paranoid of something.

Possible TV News Headlines:

• 10 reasons music will turn your kid into a raging homicidal maniac!
• Is your home safe? (probably, if you don't live in the slums, which you probably dont)
• Will hackers delete your life? (and you thought stupidity existed only in movies)
• What are your kids doing after school? (What are your kids doing IN school? Learning how to cheat a proficiency test, getting harrassed by morons (young and old), and then smoking pot.)
• Why environmentalists are crackpots (or how to think comfortably and incorectly)

Re:Problem is obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd believe you. Why would anyone fake a Harvard degree? That's like faking MSCE credentials.

I called that number!!

[Gregoyle]

I don't know if that mail still has the woman's phone number at the end, but when I got it, it did.

The number was at Los Alamos national laboratory, and I decided that with my shiny new cell-phone with free long distance I would call the number.

Haha, much to my surprise, the woman picked up the phone, and I asked her if the email was true. She said it was and asked me to take the number off the mail if I sent it to anyone, because ever since that mail had gone out her phone had been ringing off the hook.

ultracrepidarian

[rkischuk]

On the same page:

ultracrepidarian: (n., adj.) a person who gives opinions beyond his scope of knowledge.

I'll have to add this to my top ten words to use when talking over somebody's head.

Re:ultracrepidarian

[BigBlockMopar]

Wouldn't sex with John Lennon count as necrophilia now? Dead people aren't really "a different race", are they? I guess brain-eating zombies are, though.

Good one!

Actually, I was thinking of John and Yoko.

Someone seems to have been offended by it. I can't understand why anyone would be offended by xenodubroticism; it's merely a description, not a condemnation or endorsement of the interest.

It was probably the fact that the word musicians was in quotation marks, thus demonstrating my denegration of the genre of alleged music. Jeez, you'd think I'd insulted Sailor Moon or something like that.

Where's my bulk tape eraser? [click-HMMMMMMMM] Problem solved.

Re:ultracrepidarian

[scoove]

Ditto! I'm so used to reporters getting it wrong (from interviews I've had) that I seriously doubt anything these critters put out.

In case you're ever the recepient of a reporter's questions, here are a few recommendations for your survival:

- if it is "off the record," then don't say it. Off the record is reporter code for "this will be really juicy stuff to print, but I'll have to slightly reword it."

- if it involves a competitor or other antagonist, don't say it (reporters have a field day on creating any emotional tension, e.g. making you out to be a fool)

- if it is not for release now, keep your trap shut and only mention it when it is for release. Reporters survive by getting new stories out and their loyalty to their editor (and interest in keeping their job) is greater than their loyalty to you.

- if it is at all technical, give them a written release and limit the story to that. If you absolutely must be interviewed beyond the release, give them 10 minutes, give them a couple of soundbytes that you've pre-prepared, and refer everything else to the release.

- and if you're the boss, tell your employees that speaking to the press is voluntary resignation (e.g. nobody does it except you).

This will help you survive these critters.

*scoove*

The Truth

[ackthpt]

The truth never stands in the way of a news story!

Best story I remember...

[Joe_NoOne]

A friend of mine in High School loved to ride BMX bicycles and worked in the local shop. Lots of young kids used to come in and ask him stupid questions and bug him to try to be cool like they though he was. One day a particular kid was really obnoxious asking all sorts of questions about how he wanted his bike to work just so, to which my friend, getting sick of this kid, finally said, "I know the problem, but we can't fix it. Go to XXX bike shop and tell them there's a nut loose behind the handlebars". Shop XXX was about 3 miles away down very busy roads. The next day he gets a realy nasty call from Shop XXX because apparently the kid didn't catch the joke and went up there to bug those guys.

Repeat after me: "Reporters are idiots"

[sjbe]

No, not all reporters are. Just most of them. Most of the reporters I've met are little more than a talking hair-do and are fascinated by anything with blinking lights even though they almost never comprehend anything you tell them. You can just watch anything you tell them go in one ear and out the other.

Why do I say this? I work in a tech center. We do a lot of nifty complicated work usually involving a lot of computers and/or math. It's neat stuff, but not that hard to understand what it is even if you don't understand the details of it. (part prototyping, databases, 3d computer graphics, etc) Because of the kind of work we do, we are something of a showpiece for the company. We get reporters and TV crews coming through all the time. The visits usually go something like this:

Us: Here's this nifty complicated new piece of equipment that is going to help us make widgets faster, better and cheaper.

Then: Uh-huh. Can you turn the lights in the room down and stand over by the blinking lights? We need a picture.

Us: But those lights are the air conditioning system.

Them: Yeah but it looks cool and I didn't understand a word you said anyway.

They also have this peculiar fascination with taking pictures in low light conditions with glowing things. My wife worked in a lab where they used radioactive chemical markers for testing. They wanted to turn the lights down to get a picture of the spectrometer (which wasn't even in use) while showing someone handling radioactive chemicals in the dark. Very safe...

Needless to say, I don't watch the evening news anymore...

There's no such word as virii

[gorgon]

(Sung to the tune of Mary had a little lamb).

There's no such word as "virii",
"Virii",
"Virii",
There's no such word as "virii",
The plural is "viruses".

CODE RED!!!!!!

[alteridem]

Oh my God, their server isn't responding!!! They must be infected by that Code Red virus that I've been hearing about in the news. It's all true, the sky is falling, the Internet is grinding to a halt. Quick, everyone turn off your computers to prevent its spread!

Or maybe this is that even more insidious virus/worm I've been hearing about, the /. effect...

OT: Exploding Water!

[drew_kime]

I got the email about superheated water from your microwave, and how it could explode. Wrote back explaining, "No, mom. It's just another one of those hoaxes I keep telling you about." Sheesh, when will she learn.

Fast forward two weeks, I'm watching TV and see this interesting video ...

Well damn, how about that. [dial dial dial ... ring ... ring ]

Umm yeah, Mom? Sorry. You were right ...

Re:Hmm

[zpengo]

Does the False Authority Syndrome include accepting Slashdot stories as fact too?

No, no, no... read carefully: It says False Authority Syndrome. Slashdot editors select news from only authoritative sources[1], carefully check all facts[2], generate precise and accurate write-ups[3], and publish promptly[4]. Any story you read here can be trusted.

Notes:
1: Anonymous cowards
2: Asking on IRC, "Hey does this sound right?"
3: Including careful spell checks by CmdrTaco
4: Usually 2-3 months after news has appeared on Memepool, Slant-Six, K5, or similar sites.