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

[Kim L. Serkes]

At 8:43 PM -0800 8/14/97, Doug Millison wrote:

>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. [snip]

That was, indeed the "genius" of I.F. Stone. He practiced journalism with
precisely that method; arriving at the truth by ignoring the
neatly-packaged lies. He work during the Vietnam war was essential to those
of use who were resisting. When the New York Times and Washington Post
where happily swallowing sugar-coated guano at lunch with "authoritative"
government sources, Stone was digging through "boring" Pentagon
requisitions and accounts.

His book on the trial of Socrates provides more insight into that episode
in Greek history than a shelf-full of treatises by the "experts."

Pynchon, I believe, tells us the truth by telling us his vision of what was
happening "on the ground."

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Kim L. Serkes                      kls at newmediacenters.org
Program Assistant              fax 415-558-9275
New Media Centers             415-558-8866
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