Bloggers, Beware

Over at Tech Talk, Daniel Sieberg has the latest on a story that's been getting a fair amount of blogosphere buzz:

Why, oh why, must the facts continue to get in the way of a good story? It's especially true online, where bloggers can be guilty of passing a secret around the circle without directly verifying the information first. (I know, not all of them.) Such is the case surrounding Kevin Garrard, who unwittingly became the latest casualty in the Internet free-for-all -– even as he was apparently "saved" by an iconic piece of technology.

It seems Garrard, an Iraq-based soldier, recently encountered a fire fight and was shot in the chest. Someone later posted photos on Flicker of an iPod with a hole ripped through it. As the story went, the iPod took one for the team and prevented the bullet from entering Garrard's body. Sounds good, right? Now that's a feel-good tale! And it even sounds somewhat plausible, I guess. But could a soldered collection of electronics and metal really stop a bullet? I first read the story here, and while I chuckled and shook my head in amazement, I had my doubts about the human-shield ability of Apple's ubiquitous digital music player. I mean, I'd recently watched one be destroyed in a blender. And, hey, wait a minute! The photos show an iPod that's made by HP and not Apple anyway.

That's when digital detectives took over, and it seems Garrard better explained what happened through another blogger.