Doing Your Research
There seem to be too many articles nowadays about a journalist who didn’t check the sources for a piece and ran it without any fact-checking, only to find out later that it’s completely, or partially false. There is a discussion going on in the forums at hockeyfights.com about Gordie Howe. Most who really know about the game know a lot of the stuff about him and fighting is myth. He was a tough player, no doubt, but he was very dirty, and that helped opponents stay away from him more than his fighting skills. Someone was disagreeing and posted about stories from his grandfather and that Howe fought a ton in the minors for the Omaha Knights (and well, putting guys in the hospital). So another poster, who goes by “Deadman”, found the phone number of Gary Anderson, who wrote a well-respected book about that minor league team, and called him up and spoke to him about Howe and his fighting frequency to clear up the situation (Howe didn’t fight that much down there either according to Anderson, in case you’re interested). Absolutely great research - and just for a thread on a message board - why can’t journalists be so thorough?
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