Life is Zanzibar-ish

A recent* Dave Gorman show on the Dave channel (formerly UKTV G2) tackled among other things how fake news comes to be accepted. He told how one of those pranksters who delight in planting incredible factoids in wikipedia entries (you know, like "Al Gore invented the internet") had credited him with hitch-hiking round the Pacific Rim countries. Gorman spotted this and edited out the offending item, but not before the Northern Echo had picked up on it (trawling through wikipedia counts as research for lazy journalists) and published it, uncredited, as part of a pen portrait of the comedian. As a result, some wikipedia editor took it upon himself (it was almost certainly a "him") to reinstate the lie, citing the newspaper as confirmation. The story is told through Twitter here.

It is all very reminiscent of the Zanzibar fallacy, one version of which is set out here - a vivid retelling, though I think "chota peg" is more accurate than "chukka peg".

In the 18th century, Jonathan Swift wrote "Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it" and that was in the days of sailing ships and horse-drawn mail coaches. Since then, each advance in communication - telegraph, wireless, internets - has speeded the flight and replication of falsehood. We now have to be very sure of our sources before passing on any assertion.

Incidentally, Modern Life is Goodish is recorded in the Notting Hill Tabernacle. Perhaps more use of these wonderful buildings in Wales could be made by our television companies.

* Actually it seems to have been a repeat from two years ago, although Modern Life is Goodish is one of the few shows which actually originate on Dave