[Web4lib] Fwd: [CIRCPLUS] Student admits he lied about Mao bo ok

[Knuth, Pat MS IMA-Europe]

Maybe I missed seeing it, but I kept wondering why no one was attempting to
contact the library (or any library) to ask about this supposed watch list
of books. 

Pat Knuth
Systems Librarian
European Regional Library and Support Center
pat.knuth at us.army.mil


-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Richard Wiggins
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2005 3:41 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Fwd: [CIRCPLUS] Student admits he lied about Mao book

Of course the student is culpable for concocting the hoax, but the professor
who promulgated his hoax to the media under a cloak of anonymity also shares
blame.  I agree it would be preferable if the student's name were now made
public, but his professor and university are bound by FERPA, and I suspect
the university attorney has advised caution.

Recent events have provided plenty of fodder for a library course in
research methods and in questioning sources:  Wikipedia (Sigenthaler fraud
followed by its co-founder revising Wikipedia history in its own entry); New
York Times (Judith Miller's completely wrong reporting on WMD; Jayson
Blair's fictional stories written from his apartment instead of from
dateline locations); Washington Post (Woodward failing to disclose what he
knew and when he knew it in the Plame case); and innumerable Net tales
swallowed hook, line, and sinker by people who should know better.

/rich

On 12/26/05, Dan Lester <dan at riverofdata.com> wrote:
> As some of us suspected, the whole thing was a fraud. Lots of 
> librarians and others all excited over nothing. Were it up to me, I'd 
> release the guy's name and hope that some sanctions can be taken 
> against him.
>
> dan
>
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