If ever the general populace needed critical literacy, it is now. Once, not that long ago, we could have some level of confidence in what we read; we knew through various kinds of cultural transmission, that this or that news medium had a political colour, we could indulge or correct for that colour as we chose, but it was a reasonable, if not always accurate filter to apply.
Now we have the internet and while parents, politicians and teachers frequently get caught in waves of net stalkers, pornography and other assorted criminality, we hear almost nothing about the dangers of spurious or malicious sites which masquerade as their opposites.
There's a long history of insidious propaganda and disinformation campaigns hidden behind superficially authentic screens. From the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to Konrad Kujau's Hitler Diaries, the work of hatred and seduction has been done by diligent people prepared to create plausible fakes from whole cloth.
The internet has made that process easier, faster and with almost no constraints. There have been many spoofed and faked sites but they all rely on a very common strategy we all use; we will tend to believe things that reinforce our existing prejudices and will gloss over jarring elements that should raise warning signs.
This, for example, is a very clever, very subtle piece of character assassination. It is laden with clues that any critical reading will treat as alarm bells, but I first heard of it on a blog that is very critical and frequented by people who think of themselves as clear headed and not easily fooled. Many of them were. But those who don't particularly like Bill Clinton, will find many of their prejudices reinforced and confirmed in many subtle but effective ways, and Clinton will have no recourse.
Once you "know" its a rather tacky gag, but until you do, it looks a lot like the Protocols.
Have you seen http://www.cicadaville.com/index.htm ? Not heinous but surely misleading... This page ranked pretty high on Google, I would imagine some of the stuff made its way into children's research assignments...
Posted by: Seb | July 01, 2004 at 03:17 AM
LOL. Brilliant! I love Cicadaville. What I want to know is not how much of this stuff found its way into assignments but
1. How many teachers didn't get the joke and
2. How come these guys have so much spare time.
Posted by: Earl Mardle | July 01, 2004 at 01:22 PM