News Fail: The Year's Most Misunderstood Stories

This year, we hated Jay, pitied Mark Zuckerberg, and were sure the Tea Partiers were insane. But we were wrong, says Cracked. Some accepted myths, followed by the truth:

• Jay Leno stole Conan's job. Actually, “Leno had nearly nothing to do with Conan getting fired.” It all came down to contracts—and Conan’s didn’t have a time-slot guarantee, something Leno and Letterman are careful to keep.

• The Tea Partiers are a bunch of nutjobs. In fact, most of them are just regular people—but that wouldn’t really sell in the media. So the press made them look crazy, thus rendering “constructive political discourse impossible.”
• The Social Network made Mark Zuckerberg look like a jerk—“probably unfairly.” The movie really made Zuckerberg look like the height of cool, and “if the movie's version of the truth is irresponsible in any direction, it's for letting the real Zuckerberg off too easily.”

Read six more misunderstood stories at Cracked.
(More Jay Leno Conan O'Brien stories.)