I'm getting a crash course in how inaccurate it is.
On Authentic's Facebook page, a handful of the thousand+ members are talking about being interviewed by their local media because they're a middle class person who owns a Kentucky Derby winner. In reading some of these stories -- as well as some by the more mainstream press -- it is stunning to see how many inaccuracies get through.
Granted, Authentic's ownership situation is very complicated. And the partners themselves don't always have a full understanding of it. But I would think a good reporter would want to verify information from a second source. Apparently, most don't want to be bothered. (Which is one reason I could never be a reporter -- I wouldn't want to be bothered with the boring act of verification.)
I've seen other Kentucky Derby "facts" stated by the mainstream press, having nothing to do with the syndicate portion of Authentic's ownership, that are just plain wrong.
Decades ago, when I was writing Kirk/Spock, I read an interview with Leonard Nimoy's long-time secretary and former mistress. She said she'd worked in the music industry earlier in her career, and she was rather flippantly talking about how that industry's press had a lot of inaccurate facts and typos and such "because they don't care about stuff like that". Appalled, I mentioned the interview to a fan friend, who had actually had dinner with her, so knew her a little bit. This friend said, "Oh, she was just purposely saying some outlandish things because she was annoyed with the person interviewing her." Oh. I guess, in that case, the "source" was purposely being inaccurate.
Now, when I think back to the above, I wonder if my friend's information was just plain wrong, or how much she was extrapolating on her own in the name of showing how "in" "she was with the Nimoy crowd.
I'm glad I've already reached the point in my life of depending on my own inner resources for what makes me happiest. Trying to count on an outside entity to dictate to me the "real truth" about something is just playing with fire. To say nothing of how outside sources, however objective they claim to be, have a slant that is often trying to create a specific feeling upon reading the "information".
To heck with facts and figures. I count on my direct feelings to tell me what's true for me and what's not.
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