acanuck's picture

    The Decline, Fall, Plunge and Demise of Journalism

    If you go to the Drudge Report right now, you'll see the teaser:

    PAPER: Soros 'at center of hedge funds plot to cash in on demise of the euro'...

    If you click on the link, you'll see the Mail Online headline:

    Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, 'at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro'

    If you read the lead paragraph, you'll see:

    A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro.

    And if you read the entire story, you'll see it is spun entirely around a private dinner meeting that Soros himself did not attend:

    At the dinner, the speculators are said to have argued that the euro is likely to plunge in value to parity with the dollar.

    As for the alleged plot to cash in on this decline, the Mail story itself doesn't offer one word of detail or evidence. Rather, it sticks that totally unsubstantiated assertion in a cutline that accompanies the article:

    The man about to break the euro? George Soros is said to be placing large bearish bets against the single currency

    So that's what passes as journalism today: an overreaching original story, minimally sprinkled with fact, gets further sensationalized by an editor with an agenda, then is further goosed up by the execrable Drudge, and is swallowed whole by millions of semi-literate mouth-breathers.

    An ongoing decline in value of the euro is escalated verbally to a fall, a plunge, and finally -- in Drudge's fevered mind -- the currency's demise. And the underlying cause becomes not the well-documented economic problems of countries like Greece, but a plot by international speculators. If it's all a plot led by Soros, why is he publicly urging the Europeans to take the tough steps he thinks necessary to shore up the currency?

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    I wanted to rush to the defense of Soros (whose weekly checks make my high-standard of living possible) but then I learned that it was said he was betting against the Euro. That's all I need. Screw him.


    Well put, acanuck.

    Next thing we'll see: "The Protocols of the Elders of Olympus."


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