Post-truth: too good to be true
As presented in current debate, the word “post-truth” is irreducibly normative. It is an expression of concern by those who care about the concept of truth and feel that it is under attack. But what about those who feel that they are merely trying to tell the “other side of the story” on controversial topics? That there really is a case to be made
... See moreLee McIntyre • Post-Truth (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)
But the tricky part is not to explain ignorance, lying, cynicism, indifference, political spin, or even delusion. We have lived with these for centuries. Rather, what seems new in the post-truth era is a challenge not just to the idea of knowing reality but to the existence of reality itself.
Lee McIntyre • Post-Truth (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)
Instead of understanding journalism as either a collection of neutral entities who process unassailable fact into truth or as partisan operators hacking away at an agenda, we should see the endeavor as encompassing a spectrum of ideas and opinions that approximate or come as close as possible to the truth.
Ashley Rindsberg • The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times's Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History
Truth was fake; fake was true. And that’s when the problem suddenly snapped into focus. Throughout recent centuries anyone growing up in a western democracy had believed that it was necessary to have facts. Without facts, societies could be extremely dark places. Facts were essential to informed debates, to progress, to coherence, to justice.
Alan Rusbridger • Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now
Truth, the provider of meaning and orientation, is also a narrative. We are very well informed, yet somehow we cannot orient ourselves. The informatization of reality leads to its atomization — separated spheres of what is thought to be true.