Thursday, May 28, 2015

Over the Edge?

So about The Edgy Truth website…yeah, it’s come up a few times via sharing on Facebook and email. This website is one that many people love to share and cite “information”.

But wait a minute. Let’s take a look at this site. Can we believe them? Are they trustworthy? For starters, nothing is ever resourced or foot noted. Well now, that’s a red flag, wouldn’t you say? There is no author, EVER, noted in any of their articles. It is almost impossible to find out just who is behind The Edgy Truth. The best I could do is find out who the Domain name the Edgy Truth is registered to. http://www.behinddomain.com/www/edgytruth.com 

The server that is used is Go Daddy and the name is registered to a man by the name of Jamie Albano. A Google search of Jamie reveals he is a family man whose business is creating and maintaining websites. It looks like he has a very successful business. Now, just because he is listed as the registrant, does not mean he is behind the politics and writings of the Edgy Truth. He may be listed as the registrant only because he designed the site. Perhaps someone wanted to remain anonymous and asked Jamie to keep the registration in his name. Having created a few websites myself, I know that would certainly be easier and quite likely. Jamie Albano certainly doesn’t take credit for any of the information contained on the site. No one does.

Mr. Albano’s business website apparently is internetchum.com, but there is no mention of the Edgy Truth there and certainly no mention of Albano’s politics. It is my opinion, he is simply the hired and paid builder/maintainer of the Edgy Truth website.

Shouldn’t the anonymity of the Edgy Truth make us wonder?? It certainly makes me wonder. And further, there is a lengthy disclaimer on the Edgy Truth’s site. Let me quote a part of that disclaimer which should concern us all – or at least give us another “red flag”: 
 “…we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website and related social media pages, or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website and related social media pages for any purpose.”
Someone is certainly protecting themselves from any repercussions of false, or inaccurate stories. Yes, disclaimers are sometimes warranted, but this one seems to go over the top in its warnings for a site that claims to be a “Truth Information Resource” site.

And while the disclaimer mentions its staff, founders and contributors, one would be hard-pressed to find out exactly who these staffers/contributors are. I tried. I could find no names on the site at all. And upon trying a google search, I found little information about the site’s beginnings. Please let me know if you do. I could certainly delve into a conspiracy theory all my own on these important missing facts.

I for one, do not like blindly accepting information from a site that has become this popular without knowing who is behind it. Why would I believe them? At the very least, they could foot note their facts which would lead me somewhere to prove what they say. But that just isn’t the case. There are a few links to other sites within certain articles on Edgy Truth. But guess what? The links that I followed all led to radical anti-government, conspiracy filled websites that also do not and cannot back up their facts.

Why would we believe the Edgy Truth? For some, it is because it fits what they already believe, or want to believe. For others, it is about promoting an agenda they seek to fulfill. Many are being led astray because they are not thinking things through or verifying what they read. They follow blindly accepting whomever it is behind the articles they are taking to heart. And that is dangerous.

I hate to think where all of this could take us. Seems to me it leads us down a dangerous path that gets us nowhere near to truth; but rather, over the edge of disclaimers and swallowed up in misrepresentations and maybe even outright lies.
 
Now I certainly haven't read every article on the Edgy Truth site. I have come across many I have questioned. We need to be cautious wherever we are reading! There are some sites out there that claim to be a "satirical site" thereby getting away with writing out and out lies that readers believe as truth. The authors of such sites know few people will read their "satirical" claim and instead will simply believe what has been written in their article which is supposedly filled with satire. But people believe it as truth!! The sad thing is they get away with swaying public opinion with their deception.
 
Other sites will publish an article they know is not true just to get traffic to their site. They simply have to print a retraction later which in turn gets more traffic to their site! Why are we so careless in what we believe?!
 
With an internet full of "information", trickery, and fool-hardiness on just about any topic one could imagine, we all need to be careful and check facts before we blindly follow.

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