Saturday, February 6, 2010

Spinning the News: "The Big Lie?" News, Media, & The Fiction Of Non-Fiction

For the Big Lie to work, two conditions are required, after the lie itself, which must be so big that normal people wouldn't think to lie abouot it, even though they'll lie about trivia.
Item: a believable source/imprimatur
Item: incessant repetition
Celebrity culture supplies the 'imprimatur,' by short-circuiting and replacing any kind of actual 'achievement' as a condition for authority.

The Cabloid "24-hour news cycle" supplies the endless repetition.

With enough of both, the most egregious falsehoods may join the conventional wisdom.

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