How Snopes increased my already high esteem

Snopes is one of my go-to resources for fact checking. They do a good job, and even more important, they document the bases on which they form their conclusions.

I've used them for years to check things that need checking. Because of my own personal biases these may be "ridiculously false" things that I get from conservative friends, or  "too good to be true" ones from liberals. 

Yes, my perceptions are biased, but I try to be an equal opportunity fact checker.

The other day a post I saw on G+ led me to this Snopes article:

Claim:   The restaurant chain formerly known as "Kentucky Fried Chicken" changed its name to KFC to eliminate the word "fried" from its title. 

The article claims that the name change was to get a healthier, more modern image, without the word "fried." But the real reason was:

In 1990, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, mired in debt, took the unusual step of trademarking their name. Henceforth, anyone using the word "Kentucky" for business reasons — inside or outside of the state — would have to obtain permission and pay licensing fees to the Commonwealth of Kentucky

Rather than submit to extortion, TCFKAKFC changed its name.

They even posted an update:

Update:   In November 2006, KFC and the State of Kentucky finally reached an undisclosed settlement over the former's use of the trademarked word "Kentucky," and the restaurant chain announced it would be resuming its former name of "Kentucky Fried Chicken."

Good work by Snopes. 

But let's not take their word. Go to the KFC web site. Right at the top it says "Kentucky Fried Chicken." To true. Yay.

But way down at the bottom of the original Snopes post there's this unusual thing:

Additional information: 

More information about this page

Last updated:   17 May 2008 

And if you click on the icon on their page, or the red text on this one, or here, you're led to another page, and THAT'S THE PAGE that revised my opinion of Snopes further upward.

(BTW the other references on the page are to articles that say, that the name and logo was changed for a more healthy image).