My weekly newscast on Radio Shalom, On The Mark with Mark David, highlights bizarre and unusual news stories from around the world. Basically, everything you're not reading in the papers or seeing on television makes it into my newscast. I believe that people are tired of hearing the same news all week, so what my newscast does is puts a fresh perspective on the news by changing things up a bit. It's fun, it's interesting, and it's also good for a few laughs.
I recently happened upon a weird news story that I'd like to discuss. A 35-year-old man named Kenny "K-Strass" Strasser has been appearing on several Wisconsin television stations claiming that he is a yo-yo champion. He apparently works for a company called Zim Zam, which produces special yo-yos that are "greener". Normally, this would sound pretty interesting, but there were several discrepancies found when Mr. Strasser did live interviews for these TV stations. Take a look at the video below to see the extent of these discrepancies:
Many believe that this whole thing is a big sham, and is part of some kind of elaborate comedic set-up. Judging by the above video from WSAW-TV in Wausau, Wisconsin, I am inclined to agree. The American Yo-Yo Association even said that they have never heard of Mr, Strasser, and that his accolades are false. One of the reporters mentioned that in a telephone conversation, Mr. Strasser admitted that he stretched the truth a bit. It also proves that some news outlets also need to do better research when booking interviews with people. Mr. Strasser looked really dumb in his interviews, and was basically just rambling the whole time. And when he demonstrated his yo-yo skills, he failed epically. He even forgot his yo-yo strings in one of them! If that doesn't prove that this guy is a fraud, then I don't know what does.
This story proves that fact-checking is vital before booking interviews. You can't always take everything that you see or hear for face value. This is an issue that has been brought up several times on a discussion forum that I frequent. It applies to everything. A lot of people don't trust the media because of occurrences like this one. As a journalist myself, I always present information that is factual and true.
Had I been working for WSAW, I'd have done a fair amount of background research on Kenny Strasser and Zim Zam before deciding to do an interview. Journalism requires one to research things with a fine-toothed comb. Clearly, this was not done properly here, and they let this guy embarrass himself and the station on live television.
The moral of the story is, research first, interview later. If the subject seems to be sketchy, either do more research, or cancel it outright. Making an embarrassment out of yourself is a risk that need not be taken. The Kenny Strassers of the world do not deserve airtime.
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