Honest News Was Never A Thing

June 24, 2024
Jack R. Noel

We are getting more knowledgeable in a new way, the Internet now carries more information than is contained in any other form. But it’s a special kind of library, it does not have the equivalent of a library’s fiction and nonfiction section. We have to be able to tell the difference between fiction and nonfiction so that needs to be fixed.

But news publishing has never specialized in accuracy. Honest News has never been a thing. In the U.S., this mode of “passing on the news” began when printers wanted and needed to make money to pay their overhead and have something left over for themselves and their family. Notably, Benjamin Franklin grew up in the printing business and he got involved by leaving letters to his older brother who was one of the printers I am talking about. Franklin was a teenager when he started leaving letters he knew his brother would read and print for publication. But he purposely pretended to be a widow, Constance Dogood. The news was almost entirely fiction and gossip then as it is now.

Current example of this
Hot news today is about rising sea levels which “endanger” our coastal lands. Endanger? Allow yourself a hearty “Hah!”

New Orleans is five feet below sea level. New Orleans gets flooded every time there’s high winds and a storm surge. Yet New Orleans has been a port city famous for its lugubrious culture since the beginning of our country. Amsterdam, it’s the same story, it’s…