Fox News is dumb

I realize Fox News is about the least reputable of news networks, but yesterday's story from them regarding Vick being sued by a South Carolina inmate, and turning it into a national news story - while pushing the Al Qaeda angle - has to rank somewhere between negligent journalism and absolute shit.

First off though, the major question is why is this suddenly getting attention now? BeRecruited SportsWrap first posted about this on July 27th. It was soon followed up by Epic Carnival and Deadspin, followed by just about every other sports blog I can name. It's not like Fox News was breaking something that no one knew about.

Not only that, in the blogging community this rightfully wasn't seen as a major story at all. It was simply humorous.

But to me, as someone with a journalism background, it's Fox's story itself that's so terrible. Blogs have no code of ethics. This gives us considerable leeway and we can do pretty much what we want. But a news source shouldn't be pulling shit like what Fox News did with Vick - as in borderline actively looking to get people to think Vick really has ties to Al Qaeda and bought weapons from Iran.

So anyway, I'm going to go through the brief article right here. I realize most of you obviously think anyone who believes this story to be true is an idiot. But let me tell you my friends, there are a lot of idiots in this country.

Title: South Carolina Inmate Hits Michael Vick With '$63,000,000,000 Billion Dollar' Lawsuit Alleging Al Qaeda Ties. [Excellent work. Be sure to put the fear of Al Qaeda into peoples' minds. Great use of the word "Alleging" to cover your ass.]

Embattled NFL quarterback Michael Vick, facing federal charges related to his alleged participation in dogfighting, has been hit with a "$63,000,000,000 billion dollar" lawsuit filed by a South Carolina inmate who alleges the Atlanta Falcons star stole his pit bulls and sold them on eBay to buy "missiles from Iran," FOX News has learned. [Please complete this sentence: Fox News learned this from.....blogs? The guy himself? A psychic? It's customary in journalism to attribute who you got stuff from. It's the like the first thing you learn.]

Jonathan Lee Riches filed the handwritten complaint over "theft and abuse of my animals" on July 23 in the U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va.

Riches alleges that Vick stole two white mixed pit bull dogs from his home in Holiday, Fla., and used them for dogfighting operations in Richmond, Va. The complaint goes on to allege that Vick sold the dogs on eBay and “used the proceeds to purchase missiles from the Iran government.”

The complaint also alleges that Vick would need those missiles because he pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in February of this year.

“Michael Vick has to stop physically hurting my feelings and dashing my hopes,” Riches writes in the complaint.

[Right here there's a lot of missing information. First, how about we find out if Mr. Riches was even a free man when his dogs were allegedly stolen. That's not real hard. Or if he ever lived in Holiday, Florida. Not hard either. Or if he ever even had dogs. Second, now might be a good time to alert readers to any background on Riches, like that he's mentally disturbed. You are allowed to mention things like a person's background in an article.]

Riches wants $63 billion dollars “backed by gold and silver “delivered to the front gates to the Williamsburg Federal Correctional facility in South Carolina. Riches is an inmate at the facility serving out a wire fraud conviction. [Yes, bury the fact that he's serving out a wire fraud conviction deep in the article. That way most people probably miss it. Also how about some more background on Mr. Riches here, since you didn't do it earlier.]

FOXNews.com attempted to contact Vick, but neither he nor his spokesman could be reached for comment. [I find it hard to believe his spokesman couldn't be reached for comment, considering a spokesman has been in every dogfighting story since this thing started.]

Just awful, awful journalism. Totally catering to flashy, eye-grabbing news without even attempting to get any background whatsoever. I think most blogs did a better job handling this story than Fox News.

-WCK