Well, it might not be such a bad thing in the long run, particularly if they printed a retraction some days later. Already the masses believe what they read/hear from "trusted" media sources, even to the point of "knowing" that Saddam Hussein was somehoe behind 9/11/01. If this were well publicized, there could be the realiztion of "what!they LIED to us?!" In the case of the New York Times the lies are not out-and-out lies, but a deliberate slanting and re-arranging of information in such a way as to support the 'well-intentioned' initiatives of their perceived community. Or perhaps worse still, not investigating too closely when our military releases some 'hot' information...any soft questioning will be done weeks later and in a page deep in the interior... Who once raised the point that "in a world where everyone told the truth all the time, the consequences of a single lie could be catastrophic..."? -TD
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> To: Eric Cordian <emc@artifact.psychedelic.net> CC: cypherpunks@minder.net Subject: Re: Fake News for Big Brother Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 23:37:54 -0400
On Sat, Apr 26, 2003 at 12:04:10PM -0700, Eric Cordian wrote:
The news media, will, in fact, print fake news supplied by the government, with full knowlege that it is false, to further an ongoing investigation.
Yes, that may be the case. It certainly is here. But let's not forget the fact that this incident has drawn sharp criticism from other journalists.
-Declan
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