With the explosion of ‘Internet News’ – from the New York Times website to BuzzFeed – the 24-hour news cycle is roaring along, and that’s turned out to be an opportunity for the ‘spinners’ like the Waterkeeper’s Alliance. Because reporters under the gun have to turn out more stories faster and more often, the 'spinners' are taking advantage.‘Manure Happens, Especially When Hog Farms Flood’ – a recent headline on NPR’s website is one such example.The Waterkeepers had spun the same old tale, again, and scored, again – landing a story on NPR about “fields of filth” and how Hurricane Matthew had flooded 10 farms and 14 lagoons.The Waterkeepers apparently never said a word to NPR about the official state reports that showed 99.5% of the hog farms had no spills or leaks during the hurricane and NPR, probably rolling on to the next story, apparently never stopped to check the facts.If it had it would have learned there’re over 4,000 lagoons, and the Waterkeepers were only talking about 14 and ignoring 3986 of them to paint a false picture.And that’s how a ‘spin’ works.The result: NPR’s listeners were misled. And family farmers – who had succeeded 99.5% of the time during Hurricane Matthew – got hurt.
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