[Note: These comments were submitted on NBC.com 's site to draw attention to the potential error. I don't like this pastor at all and I think he's burning Korans so he can generate money.]
There’s a story on your NBC.com that seems to be auto-generated* from an anonymous comment at Topix.com. I have to say that I loathe the pastor that is accused in the comment. But I think that you had better confirm/source the story quickly or risk ruining NBC credibility.
NBC Link: http://www.nbc.com/news/2010/08/06/pastor-terry-jones-arrested-for-child-pornography/
Link listed as source: http://www.topix.com/forum/city/gainesville-fl/TFKP4EG8R3D46JVEM
It’s in a forum, not a news site and appears to be the first message posted by the anonymous member. The anon member joined the same day as the post, August 4, 2010.
Will help if I can,
Mike Conwell
Computer Consulting Company
*one thing that fascinates me is that a comparison between the two stories seems to have had some stylebook modification. “Gainesville Florida” was inserted in front of mayor and “Qur’an” was replaced with “Koran.” If there’s an intern scraping stories to add to your news site, he or she should probably be fired.
Update: I’m showing the statements below only for the sake of documenting. I do not trust what is said in these statements. This has more to do with the ongoing death of journalism than it has to do with the parties below:
Anon Poster in Topix Forum
Infamous Pastor Terry Jones, known for his activism against the mayor, and for his “Burn a Qur’an Day” has been arrested for possession of child pornography. Wednesday August 4, 2010 Pastor Terry Jones was arrested for sharing pictures of children in various states of nudity over the popular file sharing network Limewire. |
NBC.com:
Infamous Pastor Terry Jones, known for his activism against the Gainesville Florida mayor, and for his “Burn a Koran Day” has been arrested for possession of child pornography. Wednesday August 4, 2010 Pastor Terry Jones was arrested for sharing pictures of children in various states of nudity over the popular file sharing network Limewire. |
Updated 12/1/2010: NBC link is now 404′d and I can’t find any stories on NBC’s site by using their internal search mechanism. There’s not a retraction either.
