Ron Burgundy would've got it right

I’ve never been to Burma. But somebody forgot to tell that to the folks at the CBS-Affiliate in Rockford, Illinois. They interviewed me while I was at Rockford College and reported that Burma was one of the countries I visited on my Where Am I Wearing quest.

You can see the interview here.

The station sent one fella out. He seemed hurried, apparently not even having the time to say hello when he walked in the room. He started to set up his equipment without so much as a nod of acknowledgment. Not a “Hi, I’m Jim” or a “I hate my job. How are you?” Once the camera was ready, he re-read the 100-word email the college had sent him and asked, “What are ya gonna be talking about?”

So I rambled on, trying to bring a little energy to the conversation. Not once did I mention boycotts. However, I did talk about the job loss in Cambodia as the result of the financial crisis, which was cut to sound like 70,000 workers lost their jobs because of a boycott. Oh, dear.

I don’t hold anything against the fella who did the interview or against the station. I’m thankful they sent someone out at all. I’m sure some overworked editor listened to me blab for five minutes and then snip, snip, clip, clip, “Kelsey went to Burma.”

If anything, it’s a reminder how much sources need to be checked. When the Financial Times did a story on me, they had errors. When I researched WAIW I found an error in TIME or Newsweek (can’t remember) which underestimated the cost of the Three Gorges Dam by 100s of millions of dollars because they had the currency wrong.

A note to journalists and writers: Check and check again.

I’ve never been to Burma. I searched my blog and have written Burma once. Where in the world did that come from? A scotch-breathed Ron Burgundy wouldn’t have fabricated facts that much, maybe…