Weird Granny Slater wrote:I think, JH, GEs have been that way since at least as far back as 1924, when the Daily Mail published the forged Zinoviev letter passed to them by British Intelligence. No internet, no mobile phones, no social media back then; but newspaper publication was enough to get the lie out there, and enough people were suckered to produce a Conservative landslide four days later.
Sure, there's bad stuff on social media, but it's also a good tool for calling out the lies and passing around the exposures. Trouble is when the lies originate in the mainstream media their exposure rarely finds its way back, and the lies stick. (See, e.g., the recent IPSO judgement on the Jewish Chronicle's accuracy-free reporting. Or the more recent IPSO judgement on The Mail on Sunday's lie about Labour planning to abolish capital gains tax exemption on main homes. You'll find nothing in the JC or the MoS about the judgements against them.)
It's enough to make you cynical, and that's healthy. But general distrust is unhealthy, and plays into the hands of the liars.
Just to balance your example I do not think the couple of potentially damaging but definitely scurrilous lies about the Elphickes (both have been on this group and removed) originated in the mainsteam media.