Reading Critically

http://www.money.co.uk/article/1000390-13-year-old-steals-dads-credit-card-to-buy-hookers.htm

That's a great story. A 13 year old boy convicted of stealing his father's credit cards and committing 30K in fraud. Best yet, it involves an XBox, junk food, a motel room, and prostitutes.

The first thing that caught my eye was the fact that the alleged perp is 13. Even in Texas, where they like to apply the death penalty to people whose lawyers have fallen asleep during the trial, that's a bit young to be publicizing names. Oh, sure, if he had murdered his parents... but this was credit card fraud.

Then there's the bit where the primary source is a newspaper in the UK, for a crime in Texas. Odd. And there's no byline, and no attribution at all. Not even 'compiled from wire reports'. Very strange. And they run a stock photo of high-heeled pink boots.

Great Googly-Moogly shows lots of people linking to this one, including a zillion bloggers and GameSpot, GamePro, and InfoWorld. Well, it's criminal behavior with computers, so it's a great story for those publications... all of whom link to money.co.uk, not to, say, a Texas news source.

I'm not believing in this. It's entirely too mediagenic, and entirely too unsourced. Show me a primary source, people!

Reading Critically

http://www.money.co.uk/article/1000390-13-year-old-steals-dads-credit-card-to-buy-hookers.htm

That's a great story. A 13 year old boy convicted of stealing his father's credit cards and committing 30K in fraud. Best yet, it involves an XBox, junk food, a motel room, and prostitutes.

The first thing that caught my eye was the fact that the alleged perp is 13. Even in Texas, where they like to apply the death penalty to people whose lawyers have fallen asleep during the trial, that's a bit young to be publicizing names. Oh, sure, if he had murdered his parents... but this was credit card fraud.

Then there's the bit where the primary source is a newspaper in the UK, for a crime in Texas. Odd. And there's no byline, and no attribution at all. Not even 'compiled from wire reports'. Very strange. And they run a stock photo of high-heeled pink boots.

Great Googly-Moogly shows lots of people linking to this one, including a zillion bloggers and GameSpot, GamePro, and InfoWorld. Well, it's criminal behavior with computers, so it's a great story for those publications... all of whom link to money.co.uk, not to, say, a Texas news source.

I'm not believing in this. It's entirely too mediagenic, and entirely too unsourced. Show me a primary source, people!