12 JANUARY 24, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
EDITORIAL
The misinformation trap A LOOK BACK
Imagine going to the dairy aisle of
Catholic Schools Week starts across Queens and Brooklyn this Sunday,
Jan. 27. Catholic academies across the borough will be hosting open
houses showcasing their educational programs in the hope of bringing
in new students for the year ahead. This 2012 photo published in the
Ridgewood Times shows students at St. Stanislaus School in Maspeth
praying during one of their open house sessions. Send us your historic
photos of Queens by emailing editorial@qns.com (subject: A Look
Back) or mail printed pictures to A Look Back, ℅ Schneps Publications,
38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully
returned to you.
your local grocery store, looking
for a quart of milk and seeing that
every carton lacked an expiration date.
Would you pick up an unmarked
carton and bring it home to your family?
Of course not. There’s no way of
knowing how long that milk has been
sitting there, or if it’s fi t for consumption.
The last thing anyone wants is to
pour sour milk into their breakfast
cereal or a glass.
The same can be said for news online.
There’s no set expiration date for
stories, of course, but there’s currently
a phenomenon of old news being circulated
as new on the many social media
networks we enjoy.
One such event occurred this month
and aff ected a deli in Bayside, and this
news organization.
In 2008, The Queens Courier published
a story about the rumored
potential closure of the establishment.
As it turned out, the closure never
happened — but the story remained
out there online in the archives.
Fast forward to this month, and
someone on social media picked up
the 2008 story from our archives and
posted it on Facebook. They presented
the story as new news, that the deli
was about to close, and lamenting its
alleged loss for the neighborhood.
Nothing could have been further
from the truth. The deli wound up
getting tons of phone calls and inquiries
from customers about its future.
The management wound up taking
to Twitter to reassure customers
that the deli wasn’t going anywhere,
and that the old story turned out to
be incorrect.
Aft er hearing about this incident,
The Queens Courier and QNS.com
published a story about the fi asco in
order to set the record straight.
This isn’t a new trend, of course.
We’ve seen on our social media feeds
friends of ours sharing local and
national news stories many weeks
or months old, even stories about
celebrity deaths that occurred years
ago, as if these events just occurred.
Ironically, despite the wealth of
information at our fi ngertips in the
digital age, we all find ourselves
fi ghting a war against misinformation.
Some of that misinformation is
accidental, such as the sharing of old
news. There is, of course, the more
deleterious danger of “fake news,” stories
intentionally designed to distort
the facts and encourage people to fall
for something.
All of us who use Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and other social media
venues must be careful not to fall
into the misinformation trap. What
we see and share on our walls and in
neighborhood groups can be seen by
others and can spark a rumor mill that
can hurt people, organizations and
businesses alike.
Don’t let the truth turn sour!
ESTABLISHED 1908
Co-Publishers
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
Editor-in-Chief
ROBERT POZARYCKI
Classifi ed Manager
DEBORAH CUSICK
Assistant Classifi ed Manager
MARLENE RUIZ
Reporters
EMILY DAVENPORT
MARK HALLUM
CARLOTTA MOHAMED
ALEJANDRA O'CONNELL-DOMENECH
© 2019 SCHNEPS NY MEDIA, LLC.
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THE HOT TOPIC
STORY:
Rego Park Kohl’s is one of four store
locations to close later this year,
reports say
SUMMARY:
Kohl’s announced that they will
be shutting down four of its
stores nationwide, including their
location in Rego Park.
REACH:
20,665 people reached (as of 1/21/19)
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