And here is why double checking your sources or, as it was mentioned in the comments of the last Sloppy Reporting 101 post, picking up a phone to check the validity of a rumor/rep with a rep is worth five minutes of your time. IGN got some egg on their face after they mistakenly reported the existence of Metal Gear Solid: Triology for the Xbox 360 after seeing an altered press release posted by one of the forum members on Neo-GAF.

The page now reports its an “{ERROR ENTRY}” and includes the phrase “pwned by Neo-GAF.” However, should this have really happened in the first place? In the race to be the first to post a new game announcement, writers shouldn’t loose sight of making sure they have their facts straight. What the writer should have done after seeing the post is called up his or her contact at Konami to see what the deal was with the Metal Gear Solid: Triology. Or perhaps in this case, the law of “if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck its a duck” could have played a pivotal part in making sure this didn’t happen in the first place. Seriously, a Metal Gear Solid trilogy on the Xbox 360? That just smells fishy. Double checking your facts are great, but the initial judgment of the source by the writer is equally important and can prevent your site from getting “punk’d” by message board posters.