I googled conspiracies, and came up with a site that listed popular conspiracies. One of them involved the Jewish plan for world domination. Hmmmm. So I went back to Google and typed in 4 words that didn't necessarily have to do with this conspiracy - Jews in the world. Those words could generally reference a lot of topics, right? They could reference history, demographics, current events, etc. etc...
Here are a few of the hits I got:
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com (the URL alone sounds fishy to me...)
http://www.texemarrs.com (the man is selling books about the threat of the Jews...)
http://jeffweintraub.blogspot.com/2004/04/jews-give-up-world-control.html (I liked this one)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html (looks quite informative)
The first two websites had disclaimers about the information posted there, and how the website administrators were not responsible for the information they collect, which seemed to be designed to strike fear in the hearts of the Gentile population.
The third site, by Jeff Weintraub, was a blog. And guess what? He was willing to post his credentials as a university professor and... a Jew.
The fourth site was posted by an organization that had a vested interest in preserving Jewish culture and history.
These four sites had wildly different agendas with information "skewed" to fit those agendas. So, this experiment alone, I think, shows why it's important to evaluate the resources you are using. It also shows how the information that you find on Google is not always reliable.
In our class discussion about finding reliable web resources, I had selected Harry Houdini to research using the websites recommended by the Librarian's Internet Index. The information I found on Houdini seemed reliable enough, but the website was run by a magic shop owner promoting his store and his magic act. Not necessarily a fully reliable source. But since the Lii is such a reputable organization that screens and verifies the authenticity of its sources, I felt much more comfortable with the information I found through its links.
Yes, evaluating the information we find is essential in this day and age, which is why using reputable reference sources is also essential.
3 comments:
DJ,
Very helpful...nice blog. Just return home from a trip. Didn't have too much time to get it in gear, but did the best I could with the time I had.
It's interesting to see that the LII can lead to sources that might have a "commercial interest" for their information. I would bet the Houdini biography on the magic shop's website is pretty accurate, but the search is really meant to bring you to the commercial site of the magic shop.
Houdini is an appropriate subject for this time of year! Do people still conduct séances to contact his spirit on Halloween?
I picked St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for my confirmation saint back in the year 2000. Our confirmation group leaders let us browse through saint books too. The one I recommended is available at Eldorado, Dana, and Bret Harte at least. There's other saint books at the library, such as Butler's Lives of the Saints. have fun!
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