Yuku free message boards

The question really should be, are ducks being poisoned here. So far we have one second hand report that they are.

I have no complaint with SCA investigating the matter. He is doing good work in doing so. I acknowledge that I may be erring on the side of caution here for two reasons.

One, I recently watched Bill Moyers' Journal, Buying the War which spoke at length as to how the Bush administration manipulated the press and television by providing both ends of "two sources" to get its message out. There, at least, used to be a rule to insure journalistic integrity that stories be verified by at least two sources independent of each other before you run the story. I take the poisoning of ducks, animals, people, SCA's tea seriously and thus believe we must seriously weigh whether we have enough confirmed information to make the accusation on television. Such an accusation, true or not, could have negative consequences for the person accused.

Two, no one from the birding community has reported an increase of dead waterfowl in Manchester. The area is heavily birded at this time of year because of the influx of breeding herons and egrets so it is unlikely that a mass poisoning of ducks would go unnoticed. I have to give that at least equal weight to the second hand report that ducks are being poisoned and conclude there is insufficient evidence to make these charges at this time. It is as likely not true as it is true given what we have so far.

I know that in this space folks are given to vent and make broad emotional claims untempered by the legacy of journalistic integrity that reports in other media have inherited and, yes, I fully recognize that that the journalists of today have often failed to collect that inheritance. Still there is this idealistic part of me that wishes we could act with more reserve. I would much prefer the internet become a medium where folks could have confidence in the information presented. Lacking that, I will resist the notion that print and television should adopt the internet's lack of standards.