It's a rare week that passes where POLITIFACT -- a partisan website -- isn't the laughingstock of the world as they bend over backwards to, for example, portray a lie out of Joe Biden's mouth as something other than a lie. The same courtesy is never extended to a Republican..
GOOGLE and other idiotic corporations want to lose objectivity and ride on the 'Feeling Groovy' Democratic Party bandwagon.
There is a need for fact checking. The main reason for that isn't politicians. Yes, they are natural born liars. But the main reason for fact checking is lazy and stupid journalists who think they know enough to write something. On what would have been the late Judy Garland's 100th birthday, a number of journalists rushed to weigh in and, as Kat noted in " "Kat's Korner: JUDY IN LOVE -- an artistic masterpiece," they just sported their stupidity.
If we had the time, every week, we'd be offering fact checks on journalists -- 20 to 30 a week because that is how stupid and lazy they are.
Doubt it?
Carole King. Singer-songwriter. A songwriter of over 40 hit songs prior to becoming part of the singer-songwriter movement of the 70s. Responsible for more classics than most people could name on a game show off the top of their head.
She's a legend.
Why can't people get the facts right?
Forget that, let's zoom in on an outlet. PBS. Taxpayer money pays for their lying.
Tom Casciato wrote "Why doesn’t anyone talk about Carole King’s other No. 1 album (including her)?" and there are so many problems with it.
See if you can spot why Tom Casciato should never be allowed to write about popular music in the paragraph below;
Music fans old enough to remember 1971 can be forgiven if they remember it as the year of Carole King. That was the year, after all, when the “Tapestry” hurricane hit American culture – hit and never really left. 14 million units sold, four Grammy awards, two No. 1 singles (“It’s Too Late” and “So Far Away”), 25th on Rolling Stone’s list of the all-time greatest albums – you get the point. When its 50th anniversary came around this year, it was rightly hailed by Esquire as “an enduring reminder of how art can stay engrained in our cultural consciousness.”
You see the problems?
First off, "So Far Away" wasn't a number one hit. Not even on CASHBOX -- a US publication largely forgotten today but whose chart rivaled BILLBOARD's chart in real time. On BILLBOARD, "So Far Away" did make it to number 14 on the pop chart and to number 3 on the adult contemporary chart.
So Carole didn't have two number one songs from TAPESTRY?
No, she did.
"I Feel The Earth Move." That's what the idiot forgets. "I Feel The Earth Move" is known for being an incredibly well written song, it's considered the definitive example of prosody and is frequently taught in composition classes for that reason.
It went to number one.
Stupid idiots at PBS apparently never heard of the double-A single. It's when both sides go number one -- the A-side and the B-side. This doesn't happen very often, but it does happen. The Beatles had number ones with the double-sided single "Come Together" and "Something." It can also be called a "dual single" and an "AA side." Along with Carole and the Beatles, other artists having a double-sided hit include Brenda Lee, Nat King Cole, Fats Domino, the Beach Boys and Connie Francis.
So that's a problem.
Then the idiot wants you to know about "Carole King's other number one album" -- he means MUSIC and he writes, "Released just in time for Christmas, it hit the top of the charts by January of ’72, and went on to become another platinum seller, the second most popular album of her stellar career."
Is it the second most popular album of her stellar career. It's certified with a million -- some in shipping, some in sales. What about HER GREATEST HITS SONGS OF LONG AGO. Exactly how he is determining that MUSIC is more popular than that collection since both are certified platinum. Both can claim a million copies. How is he determining that MUSIC is more popular?
PBS wants you to know that "Tom Casciato is a documentary filmmaker and a Special Correspondent for PBS NewsHour Weekend." Apparently, his credit as "f**king idiot" is only to be implied.
By the way, if you think we've been too hard on the liar, his piece is entitled "Why doesn’t anyone talk about Carole King’s other No. 1 album (including her)?"
Did you not see the problem with that? That's fine as long as you don't self-present as qualified to weigh in on music. But if, like Idiot Tom, you do self-present that way, then you have a huge problem.
TAPESTRY went to number one (for weeks). As did MUSIC.
But, and here's the thing, so did 1974's WRAP AROUND JOY. Yes, Carole has three albums that hit number one on BILLBOARD's TOP 200 albums chart.
Tom's pathetic errors went up at the PBS website -- under AMERICAN MASTERS -- on March 24, 2021. PBS has refused to correct his article to this day.
They don't correct their errors. Ever. And they don't require anyone to be factual when writing about music. Which is how you get Harvey Kubernik's "Carole King's Monumental TAPESTRY Album" published at PBS' website February 15, 2011.
Harvey lies, "Sedaka also introduced Carole King and Gerry Goffin to Don Kirshner, who helmed a publishing company, Aldon Music, with Al Nevins. King and Goffin subsequently worked with Nevins and Kirshner’s Aldon Music (in the Brill Building)."
No, Harvey, just no.
PBS might let you lie, but we're not going to. From RUSS & GARY'S "THE BEST YEARS OF MUSIC:"
An interview with American pop music songwriter Toni Wine by Song Facts (SF):
Toni: There were really two huge buildings that were housing publishing companies, songwriters, record labels, and artists. The Brill Building was one. But truthfully, most of your R&B, really rock & roll labels and publishing companies, including the studio, which was in the basement and was called Allegro Studios, was in 1650 Broadway.
SF: But you were associated with the Brill Building?
Toni: Well, music from those days, people kind of condensed the area to the Brill Building area. That always bothered me, because the Brill Building is its own building and 1650 is its own building. It’s New York City… there are lots of streets, but these two buildings happened to be, basically, diagonally from each other. And the Brill Building housed different organizations. They were more of the Tin Pan Alley building. According to a lot of interviews and a lot of stories, they say that all the music was in the Brill Building. We weren’t. We were in 1650. Carole King, Barry Mann, Gerry Goffin, Cynthia Weil, Howie Greenfield, myself, and tons of people, a lot of times are written as being housed in the Brill Building. We weren’t. We were in 1650 Broadway.
SF: I guess what I’m getting at is the songwriters were not associated with each other in those two buildings. So it’s not like you would get sent over to one building from the other or anything.
Toni: No. Wherever their companies were, that’s where they were basically housed. I mean, we all loved each other, we were all brothers and sisters going to each other’s offices. We just didn’t work in each other’s offices. And a lot of people refer to the Brill Building, because the Brill Building has gotten great publicity, where 1650 did not get great publicity. But boy, we had a lot of music coming out of there.
Who you gonna believe -- a PBS liar or Toni Wine who co-wrote the eternal classic "A Groovy Kind Of Love" and worked in the same building as Carole King?