M&D truthtelling, history & I.F. Stone(WAS Publisher's Weekly (fwd)

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

Doug Millison writes:
[re I F Stone's book]
> Tying it in with the M&D theme of history & truthtelling, it was also, as I
> recall, a clear statement of the author's belief that he could do a better
> job of figuring out what really happened by *not* talking to people who
> took part in the events, but instead by studying what they said on paper on
> the time and what was said about those events at the time. I'll admit to
> reading this book at a time of my life when a lot of things get blurry, so
> forgive any gross errors here, if you can.

You should try watching television with the sound off. The effect may
have been particularly strong for me as I don't have a TV so am
unaware of the sounds which accompany the images. But it rapidly
becomes clear how primitively, rawly manipulative the imagery is.
Graphic styles, colours, settings geographic, social and conceptual
etc. all push push push at you. Adverts are bad but news and current
affairs are the worst. Combine these visuals with sound and the spoken
message distracts you while the visuals infiltrate your consciousness
i.e. divide the left and right sides of the brain and conquer. And
it's all so horribly professional.


Andrew Dinn
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How do you know but ev'ry bird that cuts the airy way
Is an immense world of pleasure clos'd by your senses five