I wish I had a patent on baloney meters. I keep thinking it is getting worse but I am not so sure the real situation isn’t that we are becoming more aware. I came across this while reading Churchill. He is quoting a cable he sent to President Roosevelt.
“I see a Reuter message, emanating no doubt unofficially from Paris, that it was agreed France should be assigned certain areas - the Ruhr, the Rhineland, etc. - for their troops to garrison. There is no truth in this, and it is obvious that nothing of this kind can be settled on such a subject except in agreement with you.... I could of course issue something which would be a disclaimer of any loose statements made by Reuter, but you may not think this necessary in view of the obvious facts.” pp. 252-3We see this kind of thing going on all down through history. I have read about how Walter Duranty wrote glowing reports about the Soviet Union while Stalin was starving millions in Ukraine. He received a Pulitzer prize for his lies. I keep remembering the way Walter Cronkite came on and lied about how we were badly beaten in the Tet offensive of 1968. Which one of our recent talking heads talked about dodging fire in a helicopter. And of course you have just about everything that comes from the CDC today.
We need to stay alert and do our best to wake up the Snow Whites around us. If we can’t wake them up then what does the job may not be a kiss from a handsome prince.
Churchill, Winston S. Triumph and Tragedy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1953.
homo unius libri
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.