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| As the Iran crisis looms, prepare for a battle over facts and truth | As the Iran crisis looms, prepare for a battle over facts and truth |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| We cannot yet know what chaos Donald Trump’s decision on the nuclear deal with Iran will unleash in the Middle East and in global affairs at large – but we do know that truth is the first casualty of war. Years ago, the person who made me most aware of the meaning of that expression was a Finn, Olli Heinonen, who was at the time the head of the international inspectors surveying Iran’s nuclear programme. A calm, sturdy man under intense pressure, Heinonen would sit down with me in the cafeteria of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. We’d sip glasses of wine while he explained some of the conclusions of his team’s reports, which I was writing articles about. | We cannot yet know what chaos Donald Trump’s decision on the nuclear deal with Iran will unleash in the Middle East and in global affairs at large – but we do know that truth is the first casualty of war. Years ago, the person who made me most aware of the meaning of that expression was a Finn, Olli Heinonen, who was at the time the head of the international inspectors surveying Iran’s nuclear programme. A calm, sturdy man under intense pressure, Heinonen would sit down with me in the cafeteria of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. We’d sip glasses of wine while he explained some of the conclusions of his team’s reports, which I was writing articles about. |
| Fake news has a long history. Beware the state being keeper of ‘the truth’ | Kenan Malik | Fake news has a long history. Beware the state being keeper of ‘the truth’ | Kenan Malik |
| Heinonen saw his task as establishing facts – in the belief that only documented, rational discourse had a chance of preventing passions from overtaking everything. His father had fought in the Soviet-Finnish Winter war of 1939-40, and always repeated that sentence to him in his youth, as a lesson never to be forgotten: truth is the first casualty of war. | Heinonen saw his task as establishing facts – in the belief that only documented, rational discourse had a chance of preventing passions from overtaking everything. His father had fought in the Soviet-Finnish Winter war of 1939-40, and always repeated that sentence to him in his youth, as a lesson never to be forgotten: truth is the first casualty of war. |
| These discussions with Heinonen hark back to an era before social media, before what is now commonly called fake news, and before democracies in Europe and the US started being shaken to the core by multiple crises. I can only shudder at the thought that another war might break out in the Middle East. If it happens, it will be accompanied by a renewed frenzy of lies, manipulation and propaganda that would leave many people dizzy and confused. For the “mainstream media” – outlets that seek to describe complex realities as honestly as possible, not least by checking their facts – the challenges will be huge. | These discussions with Heinonen hark back to an era before social media, before what is now commonly called fake news, and before democracies in Europe and the US started being shaken to the core by multiple crises. I can only shudder at the thought that another war might break out in the Middle East. If it happens, it will be accompanied by a renewed frenzy of lies, manipulation and propaganda that would leave many people dizzy and confused. For the “mainstream media” – outlets that seek to describe complex realities as honestly as possible, not least by checking their facts – the challenges will be huge. |
| Not all of this is new, of course. What war reporters have known for a long time, arguably ever since the Crimean war of the 1850s and its coverage by the intrepid Irishman William Howard Russell, is that you can believe the statements of generals only once you have yourself witnessed the retaking of a hill or a fort, the level of destruction and the plight of soldiers and civilians. Propaganda was certainly taken to new heights by 20th-century totalitarian systems, when radio first appeared as a mass medium. Some of those same methods are again at play today, in a digital era where messaging can be infinitely amplified by clicks and data exploitation. | Not all of this is new, of course. What war reporters have known for a long time, arguably ever since the Crimean war of the 1850s and its coverage by the intrepid Irishman William Howard Russell, is that you can believe the statements of generals only once you have yourself witnessed the retaking of a hill or a fort, the level of destruction and the plight of soldiers and civilians. Propaganda was certainly taken to new heights by 20th-century totalitarian systems, when radio first appeared as a mass medium. Some of those same methods are again at play today, in a digital era where messaging can be infinitely amplified by clicks and data exploitation. |
| We the 'mainstream media' are not perfect, but we do correct our factual errors | We the 'mainstream media' are not perfect, but we do correct our factual errors |
| One way of looking at the world is to say that we have a clash between democracies and autocracies, with some of the latter finding “useful idiots” among the former – people who prefer to lash out at “the system” or the “elite” in countries where they have the freedom to do so unhindered and without incurring any risk. | One way of looking at the world is to say that we have a clash between democracies and autocracies, with some of the latter finding “useful idiots” among the former – people who prefer to lash out at “the system” or the “elite” in countries where they have the freedom to do so unhindered and without incurring any risk. |
| Syria, with its estimated 500,000 dead, is the terrain on which our western politics and media have foundered, and on which the possibility of a conflict involving Israel, Iran and other powers is increasingly contemplated. It is not that brave, knowledgeable and dedicated reporters have not covered the bloodbath there – they have, and admirably so. Rather, it is that somehow the horror has only occasionally seeped into western consciences rendered confused or fatalistic by the very magnitude of the crisis and by conflicting versions of it. | Syria, with its estimated 500,000 dead, is the terrain on which our western politics and media have foundered, and on which the possibility of a conflict involving Israel, Iran and other powers is increasingly contemplated. It is not that brave, knowledgeable and dedicated reporters have not covered the bloodbath there – they have, and admirably so. Rather, it is that somehow the horror has only occasionally seeped into western consciences rendered confused or fatalistic by the very magnitude of the crisis and by conflicting versions of it. |
| A few weeks ago I took part in a conference in Caen, Normandy, at the city’s memorial museum to the 1944 Allied landings. The topic discussed was Vladimir Putin and his policies in Ukraine and the Middle East – with the showing of a documentary film by Antoine Vitkine, a French director. After the microphone was handed to the audience for questions, a dozen or so hands shot up, and Vitkine and I found ourselves accused of being “CIA agents” or “anti-Russian” because of our criticism of Putin’s militaristic revisionism. | A few weeks ago I took part in a conference in Caen, Normandy, at the city’s memorial museum to the 1944 Allied landings. The topic discussed was Vladimir Putin and his policies in Ukraine and the Middle East – with the showing of a documentary film by Antoine Vitkine, a French director. After the microphone was handed to the audience for questions, a dozen or so hands shot up, and Vitkine and I found ourselves accused of being “CIA agents” or “anti-Russian” because of our criticism of Putin’s militaristic revisionism. |
| These people were angry, and they distrusted us because we came from the “mainstream”. They were a minority, but their energy seemed to intimidate other people in the room. After a while, I asked one of the men who had lashed out at us how he got his information. He listed French public television, Le Monde, a far-right conspiracy-heavy website and Russia Today. He added: “I know these media say different things, but I believe there is interesting information in all of them, and that the truth is somewhere in the middle.” | These people were angry, and they distrusted us because we came from the “mainstream”. They were a minority, but their energy seemed to intimidate other people in the room. After a while, I asked one of the men who had lashed out at us how he got his information. He listed French public television, Le Monde, a far-right conspiracy-heavy website and Russia Today. He added: “I know these media say different things, but I believe there is interesting information in all of them, and that the truth is somewhere in the middle.” |
| Serious, reliable media organisations take pride in their work, and rightly so. But we have barely started addressing the question of how and why that work may be met with such antagonism. Dialogue was not what those angry men in the auditorium wanted: they wanted to pour out resentment. Would acknowledging mistakes help? We the “mainstream media” are not perfect, but we do correct our factual errors – which propaganda outfits, of course, never do. We can hold political sympathies, but that is not the same thing – nor should it be – as a systematic bias based on selective coverage of the news, or its distortion. | Serious, reliable media organisations take pride in their work, and rightly so. But we have barely started addressing the question of how and why that work may be met with such antagonism. Dialogue was not what those angry men in the auditorium wanted: they wanted to pour out resentment. Would acknowledging mistakes help? We the “mainstream media” are not perfect, but we do correct our factual errors – which propaganda outfits, of course, never do. We can hold political sympathies, but that is not the same thing – nor should it be – as a systematic bias based on selective coverage of the news, or its distortion. |
| The good news is that the US and Europe are now awash with initiatives aimed at countering “fake news”. The bad is that those two words fail to distinguish between inaccuracies stemming from genuine human error, deliberate fabrications and distortions for financial gain, political spin, and the results of propaganda offensives launched by regimes or groups whose strategy is to erode democratic institution and to attack the very notion that truth exists. | The good news is that the US and Europe are now awash with initiatives aimed at countering “fake news”. The bad is that those two words fail to distinguish between inaccuracies stemming from genuine human error, deliberate fabrications and distortions for financial gain, political spin, and the results of propaganda offensives launched by regimes or groups whose strategy is to erode democratic institution and to attack the very notion that truth exists. |
| Truth does exist; it is not somewhere in the middle. The “mainstream” media’s only mission is to honestly and independently seek it. But as another Trump-inspired crisis approaches, convincing the public of that will be a test for us too. | Truth does exist; it is not somewhere in the middle. The “mainstream” media’s only mission is to honestly and independently seek it. But as another Trump-inspired crisis approaches, convincing the public of that will be a test for us too. |
| • Natalie Nougayrède is a Guardian columnist | • Natalie Nougayrède is a Guardian columnist |
| Iran nuclear deal | Iran nuclear deal |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| Social media | Social media |
| Digital media | Digital media |
| Donald Trump | Donald Trump |
| Vladimir Putin | Vladimir Putin |
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