The Texas Tech cheerleader who drew a lot of attention recently after posing with animals she had killed on big-game trophy hunts, appeared recently at an outdoors show.

Recall that supporters of the woman used the excuses that killing endangered animals somehow helps to protect them. I guess if there isn’t a reasonable excuse for doing something wrong, people will try to fill the void with some sort of nonsense.

But now the nonsense has been taken to a new level, by the cheerleader’s father. In a CNN video, he says, “There’s never been an animal go extinct because of hunters. There’s been animals go extinct because of poachers.”

That is unbelievably, stunningly inaccurate. Just go to the Wikipedia link highlighted here and go from the 18th Century forward. Between hunting and habitat destruction, humans have been wiping out species for a long, long time. And hunting only becomes poaching when the hunting and habitat destruction reaches critical levels.

And the father’s statement is only made worse by the fact that if not for protections, such as those put into effect by the Endangered Species Act, even more animal species would have been wiped out by hunting. Take for example the Bald Eagle.

But it is important to note that this case also reflects on the state of journalism in the US. I have no problem with news outlets presenting statements from both sides within a story like this. But facts matter. What the dad said was grossly inaccurate. Journalists and news outlets have a responsibility to report facts.

Sure, present the opinions from both sides. But when a statement is made by either side that steps way beyond the scope of fact, the media should the take the extra step to report the facts. To let the extreme inaccuracy go is just lazy.