It's clear, therefore, that the Mikkelsons did contact State Farm headquarters during the course of their investigation, and accurately reported that the company requested removal of the sign. According to David Mikkelson, they also attempted to contact Mr. Gregg personally via email, but never received a reply (source: FactCheck.org).
Is Snopes.com infallible? No.No one is immune to error, and that includes the folks who run Snopes.com, TruthorFiction.com, and even, God knows, yours truly. Reader, if you take nothing else away from this commentary, I hope you will at least pay heed to this one important point: no information source is infallible.
Whether it be an urban legends website, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, or the Encyclopedia Britannica, mistakes can be made, nuances missed, and unconscious biases unleashed at any point in the fact-checking process.
Rule of thumb: Wherever possible, avoid depending on any single source of information, no matter how esteemed its reputation or how reliable it has proven in the past.
To quote Snopes.com's own Barbara Mikkelson, "It's just as much a mistake to look to a usually-reliable source to do all of the thinking, judging, and weighing as it was to unquestioningly believe every unsigned email that came along."
In the thorny search for truth, there's no substitute for doing one's own research and applying one's own considered judgment before thinking oneself informed. That's an unbiased fact.
See also: The Obama / Kagan / Snopes Connection
Poll: In your opinion, does Snopes.com have a liberal bias?
1) Yes. 2) No. 3) Not sure.
Share This Article
Sources and further reading:
Too Good to Be True? It Usually Is
Washington Post, 28 September 2008Citation Makes Snopes.com Work
Longview News-Journal, 18 October 2008Keeping Their Opinions to Themselves
New York Times, 18 October 2008Snopes.com
FactCheck.org, 10 April 2009False Authority Syndrome
Snopes.com, 16 May 2008Evaluating Information Sources: Basic Principles
Duke University Libraries, 30 May 2007
Last updated: 04/06/11
