BBC Versus Snopes

Long ago, when ErosBlog was young and my bullshit detectors were not as sensitive as they have grown to be, I participated in spreading a story about a family encounter via an escort service, as had been reported by the BBC. Of course aware readers today would recognize it as a viral legend, dating in internet terms to the 1990s but documented by Snopes as having literary precedent going back at least to the 1920s.

It’s funny because in 2002 I considered the BBC a high-quality news brand. In recent years it has so clearly been captured by the British version of neoliberalism that it no longer has much credibility with me, but back when this blog was new, it never even occurred to me that they’d print a complete bullshit story. But of course when you read it, it has all the hallmarks: a single source to an overseas press source of unknown trustworthiness, combined with a complete lack of verifiable specific details. As Snopes describes its “legend” rating of tales like this: “events so general or lacking in detail that they could have happened to someone, somewhere, at some time, and are therefore essentially unprovable.” Indeed.

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