Across America, newspapers and television stations often have stories on consumer protection, where readers or viewers can have consumer problems addressed. These stories are popular because they reassure readers that the paper or station is on the side of ordinary readers and viewers.
Imagine the opposite posture: where a newspaper lies to ordinary readers to boost an event that’s overwhelmingly disappointing. Dishonesty not merely over an event, mind you, but dishonesty over an event that’s right in front of readers.
That kind of gaslighting is an audacious, extreme dishonesty: lying about the truth that others see immediately in front of them.
If a newspaper would lie about that, then what else would it lie about?
If one has no reason to believe newspaper stories even about a simple festival, then why would one believe, for example, readership numbers or claims the publisher made to its employees about the newspaper’s financial condition?
For every senseless lie easily refuted, how many more self-interested lies might await discovery?