A USA Today reporter named Nathan Bomey was on Twitter whining about how he and other reporters fell for an April Fool’s joke from Volkswagen. Volkswagen said that they were going to change their name to “Voltswagen” but it wasn’t a real thing and was part of a marketing prank. Bomey and many others reported this as if it were fact.
Just look at these tweets. He’s very angry that Volkswagen deceived him.
Dear Volkswagen: You lied to me. You lied to AP, CNBC, Reuters and various trade pubs. This was not a joke. It was deception. In case you hadn’t noticed, we have a misinformation problem in this country. Now you’re part of it. Why should anyone trust you again? https://t.co/1rcKT7p0u5
— Nathan Bomey (@NathanBomey) March 30, 2021
I asked my VW source directly: Yes, I see the announcement, but this is a joke, right? No, it’s not a joke, he said. Now they admit it was.
— Nathan Bomey (@NathanBomey) March 30, 2021
I am astonished that a company that — just a few years ago, mind you — paid $30 billion in penalties and pled guilty to criminal charges for **deceiving its customers and regulators to pollute the earth** now thinks it’s funny to lie to reporters.
— Nathan Bomey (@NathanBomey) March 30, 2021
To everyone out there celebrating the fact that VW lied to reporters, including me:
We have common ground: Like you, I desperately want to restore trust in journalism. That's why it's so critical that we must be able to trust our sources. Without it, misinformation flourishes.
— Nathan Bomey (@NathanBomey) March 31, 2021
The worst part about his tweets was him whining about misinformation flourishing because he was tricked by a prank marketing campaign. He says this at a time when his entire profession is filled with people who deliberately spread lies and misinformation. The coronavirus hysteria, the Russia hoax and many other stories are proof of the lies and deception that we see from the media. The amount of damage that people like him have caused the world is incalculable. It’s just never ending lies and lies by omission from these clowns.
The whole fiasco also shows how stupid, lazy and gullible many of these reporters are. They literally do zero due diligence on anything and are not competent people. They just took the word of what Volkswagen said without any further verification even though they were putting this out right around April Fool’s Day.
And look, I’m not saying that I’m perfect. I’ve made mistakes when covering news. But I’ve made far less mistakes and been far more accurate than people who are supposed to be professional reporters and I just do this part time. Their entire profession has become a joke.
