I finally saw how a local news story about a power outage was spun into a 'grid attack' theory

Last Tuesday, a substation near my house in Springfield had a real outage for about 4 hours. The next day, I saw a post in a different forum saying it was a 'test run' for a bigger attack on the whole state's power. I looked up the official report from the utility company, which clearly said a squirrel got into the equipment. I posted the link and the exact time the animal was found, 2:17 PM, in the debate thread. The person who started the theory just said 'reports can be faked' and didn't budge. It showed me how a simple, proven fact gets ignored to keep a story alive. Has anyone else had to fact-check a local event that blew up online?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_joseph7d ago

Ever notice how people just want the exciting story?

danielgonzalez7d ago

Yeah, but what's the exciting story? Is it the one that's true, or the one that makes a good headline? Like when a car just needs a new battery but the customer swears they heard a "deep grinding roar from the engine." The simple fix isn't as fun to tell.