By STEVE CORNETT August 7, 2023
It all started with this report on a popular online newsletter:
“WE WERE ABLE TO OBTAIN THIS PROSPECTIVE SECRET INSTRUCTION SHEET FROM UNNAMED SOURCES. THIS IMAGINED GUIDE PROVIDES THE COLOR FOR BEHIND THE SCENES COMMUNICATIONS AT THE BUY DESK TO THE FIELD BUYERS.*
Wow. It was smoking gun stuff to eagerly suspicious ears. A step-by-step instruction sheet on how packing companies use their local buyers to manipulate the market. It was so explicit, so detailed, so starkly “just bygawd what I thought” that it seemed to me it smelled less like gunsmoke than stinky bait.
Stinky bait. You know. Like when you’re catfishing. Wikipedia can explain what that means in the modern world. **
So your trusty ex-reporter left the tractor idling and set about tracking down the source of the memo. It took a cupla emails is all it took. They (Yeah, I said “they.” Not because I’m woke, but because I chose not to divulge the gender of the unnamed source) said it was meant as satire. Not fish bait. They didn’t expect anybody to take it seriously. In fact, there were several glaring clues in the text...MORE
All that said, here’s the big lesson, and I’m pretty sure it’s not original with me: Don’t believe everything you read on the internet no matter how much you want it to be true. There is no blogger code of ethics. Many of them just blah-blah blog.
More importantly, if you care to husband your credibility, check your damned sources before you regurgitate stink bait.
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