The Truth Is Out There...



Mike's posts (here and here) about Ken Powers and the excellent work done by Bruce Allen represents yet another example of how in the modern world, the truth will eventually catch up to you. I wrote a column on this last fall in the context of the Wally Backman firing and there have been numerous other examples. The sources of truth come in a number of different forms.



The first, which has been widely documented since the election, is the increase in informal journalism, especially through blogs. Bloggers helped break the Dan Rather/CBS-forged memo story; they played a big role in the electoral defeat of Tom Daschle; and now a blogger has broken this story of plagiarism. In the past, relying only on the self-perpetuating main stream media ("MSM"), these stories would have probably never arisen, and society as a whole would be less-informed. Frankly, the Internet has made it possible for anyone to be a journalist, thereby increasing a thousand-fold the number of individuals investigating the truth and looking for stories. With more eyes, the chances are greater that forgeries will be uncovered and plagiarism will be discovered.



Second, members of the MSM and the informal media alike benefit from the wealth of information available in seconds over the Internet. As I pointed out in the Backman piece, criminal records, news stories describing past indiscretions and files believed to have been lost forever are now archived and fully-searchable by anyone with a computer. It is becoming much harder for individuals, especially those in the public eye, to escape their past and to use lies to cover up the truth. In addition, it may not have been possible, and it certainly would not have been easy, to catch Powers's apparent plagiarism if the works were only available in print. After all, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette has a limited circulation. But today, with all of the works available on the Internet, individuals like Bruce Allen can quickly make comparisons and out those that take credit for the work of others.



There are dangers associated with this new technological development, including a loss of privacy and the proliferation of "false stories" by a mass of would-be journalists all looking for a "scoop," but the benefits would seem to result in an overall plus for society. Information is no longer the sole purview of the MSM and the truth, no matter how buried, really is "out there."

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