Monday, January 16, 2023

Primary Sources

One of the best developments of the 21st century, in my view, has been video reporting exposing the lies and errors of public officials. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart did a good job of exposing government and media misinformation with regard to the 2003 Iraq War, an event with massive consequences in terms of death, destruction, refugee crises, and trust in our institutions, both national and international. The videos juxtaposed statements by government officials and mainstream media organs with conflicting reporting of events (by equally "authoritative" institutions) as they actually turned out. We didn't have to trust Jon Stewart, we just had to trust our own eyes and ears and be alert to any signs that Stewart might be taking things out of context or doctoring videos.

In the current era of anti-Putin hysteria, there are equally good video reports available which make crystal clear the lies and errors of public officials with regard to a massively consequential event - the false demonization of Putin and the war in Ukraine. Here are some:

I laugh and cry as I watch these.

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