Stinkyjournalism specialises in exposing fetid news stories by major news outlets, using its version of citizen journalism.

It is a fabulous move in the battle against mainstream press outlets that use the “he said, she said” journalism style that gives vital oxygen to mongrels like the Swift Boat gang. For an example, go here. This is Fox news, doing the “we report”, you decide” self-deception tango.

The site is part of the Art Science Research laboratory, which combines a standard journal – Astrobiology Magazine for NASA – with a non-conspiratorial history magazine focusing on September 11th, and a public affection for Marcel Duchamp. You can see why I was enchanted, even before I realised the logo contains a precessing bicycle wheel and the organisation was started by Rhonda Roland Shearer and, of all people, Stephen Jay Gould.

Now the stinkhunters have focused on a story about an eleven year old child who seemingly shot the world’s largest feral pig, armed only with some sort of handgun thingy. It is a scam on so many levels – released a day after the announcement of a low rent feature film project about a monster pig, which immediately recruited the kid and put the story on the website. Pictures sold for money. And, saddest of all, the pig seems to be a farm pet, fed on tinned sweet potatoes, sold for a “hunt” and shot to death in a pen with no cover.

As an enterprising local newspaper added a whole new dimension via AP

“The monster hog gained worldwide acclaim after he was harvested by 11-year-old Jamison Stone, a Pickensville native, with a .50-caliber pistol on May 3 at the Lost Creek Plantation, LLC, a hunting preserve in Delta. The big boar was hunted inside a large, low-fence enclosure and fired upon 16 times by Stone, who struck the animal nearly a half-dozen times during the three-hour hunt.”

Because the animal is not feral, the slow death of Fred the pig was legal “under the guidelines of Alabama law”.

The story has gone round the world. Stinkynews has had a deal of light-hearted fun recruiting a physicist to create solemn diagrams to demonstrate that the kid is actually seven feet behind the pig in this pic so it is a simple camera illusion beloved by tourists. This is an admirably dry sense of humour.

A steady descant of commenters reckon it doesn’t matter whether it is true or not. The allegations were made, they were funny, life is full of grimly serious stuff and we all need a laugh. True, and I am all for a good hoax, but the game doesn’t work if journalists are not vigilant. In practice, they actively collude with a bunch of liars trying to game the system for personal profit. I bet none of the journalists involved would privately say they don’t mind being played for a sucker.

The amazing thing to me is that the photo is such obvious rubbish. I did think it was a primitive Photoshop job, since the pig seems to be at a different resolution to the rest of the picture, which is a tragically simple giveaway. That may still be true, but the discrepancy is easily explained as a depth of field issue.

I peered at the strange mark on the side of the pig for a while. Then I began to think that the animal was probably lying down when they shot it. Then I didn’t want to think about it any more.

I had bacon for breakfast, but this is somehow nastier than the usual ugly system of slaughterhouse killing.

The story now covers two different posts, with another to come. The really amazing part of the whole thing is the comments attached the articles, like this.

Influenced as I am by Satan, I stole this example:

“Lady, you are one evil person, the day that God comes back is the day that you go to hell, shame on you for being so jealous..”

This is no doubt a mean thought, etc etc wash my mouth out with soap and water, but I can’t stop thinking that all the people in the extensive pile of photos in this story are extremely fat. They are very easy victims – just like the pig. But unlike poor bullet-riddled Fred, shot as he waited for his sweet potato, there is a point to this story which is not just human cruelty.

The media that ran with it are a piece of crap.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 8:41 pm and is filed under journalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.