Facts are and must be the coin of the realm in a democracy, for
government "of the people, by the people and for the people,"
requires and assumes to some extent an informed citizenry.
Unfortunately, for citizens in the United States and throughout the
world, distinguishing between fact and fiction has always been a
formidable challenge, often with real life and death consequences.
But now it is more difficult and confusing than ever. The Internet
Age makes comment indistinguishable from fact, and erodes
authority. It is liberating but annihilating at the same time.
For those wielding power, whether in the private or the public
sector, the increasingly sophisticated control of information is
regarded as utterly essential to achieving success. Internal
information is severely limited, including calendars, memoranda,
phone logs and emails. History is sculpted by its absence.
Often those in power strictly control the flow of information,
corroding and corrupting its content, of course, using newspapers,
radio, television and other mass means of communication to
carefully consolidate their authority and cover their crimes in a
thick veneer of fervent racialism or nationalism. And always with
the specter of some kind of imminent public threat, what Hannah
Arendt called 'objective enemies.'"
An epiphanic, public comment about the Bush "war on terror" years
was made by an unidentified White House official revealing how
information is managed and how the news media and the public itself
are regarded by those in power: " You journalists live] "in what we
call the reality-based community. But] that's not the way the world
really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we
create our own reality . . . we're history's actors . . . and you,
all of you, will be left to just study what we do." And yet, as
aggressive as the Republican Bush administration was in attempting
to define reality, the subsequent, Democratic Obama administration
may be more so.
Into the battle for truth steps Charles Lewis, a pioneer of
journalistic objectivity. His book looks at the various ways in
which truth can be manipulated and distorted by governments,
corporations, even loan individuals. He shows how truth is often
distorted or diminished by delay: truth "in time" can save terrible
erroneous choices. In part a history of communication in America, a
cri de coeur for the principles and practice of objective
reporting, and a journey into several notably labyrinths of
deception, "935 Lies" is a valorous search for honesty in an age of
casual, sometimes malevolent distortion of the facts.
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