Joe Smith

[Donna Halper]

>it was said by Dan--
>Moral: Googling is an art that is much more complex and subtle than most
>people believe. Let that be a lesson to all who think you can insert search
>terms and obtain useful information from the number of "hits."

I tell my students this all the time.  Just because a "fact" is repeated 
over and over, doesn't make it true or even accurate, since a mistake can 
get repeated in cyberspace for years.  KDKA is allegedly the "first radio 
station in the world" according to many who prefer publicity over truth, 
and a google search for KDKA will find that "fact" repeated endlessly.  I 
am not criticising google or ask.com or any other non-scholarly search 
engines, but the reliability of the information has NOTHING to do with how 
many times something is repeated.  I still can't find evidence that Joe 
Smith was at WMEX, no matter how many people say he was.  If Joe says it', 
I'll be more inclined to agree.  But his testimony to the Payola committee 
said he was at WILD and then he went off to the record industry.