The media might not know whether something is true or not but they certainly transmitted the lies of others to great effect:
There's a whole list of Bush-era flat-out lies here. Bush said Iraq had biological weapons, that there was uncertainty as to whether they had nuclear weapons (when intelligence concluded that they couldn't have a bomb before 2007-8), they lied that the infamous aluminium tubes were only suitable for nuclear weapons, the ridiculous Hussein/Al-Qaeda connection.
It'd also help if we shut down the liars who pretended Afghanistan was a successful operation, or on the verge of success. By 2010 it was pretty clear to those in the know that things were going badly, there were internal reports where they said it was a complete mess. Yet we stuck around for another 12 years because they lied about it. The trouble is that those verity-dodgers were and still are leading our militaries.
Even though punishing the liars isn't a complete solution, it is at least a good start. We don't need to wait for a perfect level of rationalism and idealized truth-telling, we can start by punishing people who blatantly lie and cause vast destruction. We could also punish the credulous media that transmits these lies uncritically. The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.
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Notes -
The media might not know whether something is true or not but they certainly transmitted the lies of others to great effect:
There's a whole list of Bush-era flat-out lies here. Bush said Iraq had biological weapons, that there was uncertainty as to whether they had nuclear weapons (when intelligence concluded that they couldn't have a bomb before 2007-8), they lied that the infamous aluminium tubes were only suitable for nuclear weapons, the ridiculous Hussein/Al-Qaeda connection.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/20/18274228/ari-fleischer-iraq-lies-george-w-bush-wmds
It'd also help if we shut down the liars who pretended Afghanistan was a successful operation, or on the verge of success. By 2010 it was pretty clear to those in the know that things were going badly, there were internal reports where they said it was a complete mess. Yet we stuck around for another 12 years because they lied about it. The trouble is that those verity-dodgers were and still are leading our militaries.
Even though punishing the liars isn't a complete solution, it is at least a good start. We don't need to wait for a perfect level of rationalism and idealized truth-telling, we can start by punishing people who blatantly lie and cause vast destruction. We could also punish the credulous media that transmits these lies uncritically. The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.
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