Internet putting truth in danger

Sun Sep 21 21:13:41 PDT 1997

   [1]Cable & Wireless
   [2]UK News [3]Electronic Telegraph
   Friday 19 September 1997
   Issue 847

   [4]See text menu at bottom of page
   Internet 'putting truth in danger' 
   By Alison Boshoff
   _________________________________________________________________

   External Links

   [5][LINK]
          Safe Surf's Proposal for a Safe internet Without Censorship

   [6][LINK]
          Campaign for Internet Freedom

   [7][LINK]
          Conspiracy Theory - Publisher's Rant

   [8][LINK]
          Dimitry's Save the Conspiracy Theories Campaign

   [9][LINK]
          Conspiracy Theory Land

   [10][LINK]
          Disinformation

   [11][LINK]
          Make your own conspiracy theory - Turn Left
     _________________________________________________________________

   THE generation that has grown up on The X-Files poses a threat to the
   future of journalism, Fergal Keane, the BBC's Asia Correspondent, said
   last night.

   Mr Keane, delivering the Huw Weldon Memorial Lecture at a television
   convention, said that he was worried about the growing influence of
   the Internet, and the conspiracy theories that are aired on it.

   He told the Royal Television Society's Cambridge Convention that the
   rash of rumours about the circumstances of the death of Diana,
   Princess of Wales showed that there was a public appetite for
   speculation and fantasy. He said: "Will the generation growing up on
   The X-Files really want to choose calm, considered reportage when they
   have science-fiction and fantasy?"

   He said that the trend threatened to plunge reporting into the
   "rumour-ridden gloom of the Middle Ages".

   Another danger, said Mr Keane, lay in the trend towards trivia and
   celebrity that was increasingly taking control of the journalistic
   agenda.

   He referred to the "beautiful airhead syndrome" and to stories about
   the "dumbing down of the BBC" but said that the corporation's rich
   history of quality reporting meant that it would not head in that
   direction.

   He said: "As someone who is neither pretty nor wise, I feel able to
   take the view that dumbing down will not happen at the BBC. If it did,
   it would desert the finest tradition of broadcasting professionalism
   in the world."

   Mr Keane said news organisations faced greater challenges than ever,
   with bigger and more diverse audiences who probably knew less about
   the world than their predecessors. He warned of a sacred journalistic
   duty to celebrate the truth.

   He said that there was a danger that some news organisations became
   little more than a "carnival of egos" because of a "star system"
   operating among their correspondents, and had to guard against
   employing anyone who was less than exceptional and less than
   dedicated.

   [12]3 December 1996: Conspiracy theories on the Internet
   [13]27 June 1997: Beware the Internet's first aid, say doctors
     _________________________________________________________________

   Next report: [14]Sleepwalker survives 60ft fall
     _________________________________________________________________

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