God forbid I ever have to take a GST shitpost seriously merely because it is accompanied by a few screenshots and the aesthetic pretence of journalism. There is something almost comical about the confidence with which half digested information is packaged as authoritative reporting, stripped of its original context, embellished with sensationalist language, and then presented to an audience as though intellectual rigour were an optional inconvenience. What makes it worse is the sanctimonious posture that often accompanies this kind of content, an apparent commitment to informing the public, while simultaneously demonstrating remarkably little commitment to the basic principles of verification, contextualisation, source criticism, or even accurately representing the material being cited. A recent post by the association of sensationalism expert[GST] that Nigerian “pound yam flour” is unsafe because manufacturers allegedly add toxic levels of sulphur dioxide and other chemicals to artificially whiten the product and extend its shelf life. The post cites a 2008 medical case report titled “Poisoning due to yam flour consumption in five families in Ilorin, Central Nigeria.”