Three's a trend, right? Take the false report of Steve Jobs's heart attack, spread by a CNN website and Digg; a six-year-old report of United Airlines' bankruptcy, resuscitated by Google News; and a silly story about Oprah and Sarah Palin. And what do you get? Lies, lies, lies on the Internet! Some Web operations are promising to factcheck Wednesday's presidential debate in real time. Right! I ran a magazine's factchecking operation, and much to my fellow editors' chagrin, a thorough vetting of the accuracy of a report does not happen instantly. Passing on some concocted tale that confirms your worldview? That takes no time, or thought, at all. All the Internet does is speed things up a little. (Illustration via The Second Road)