From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 09:28:19 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: L.A. Times articles, etc.
Message-ID: <3234624B.1C93@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I'm sure everyone is familiar with how newspaper articles are not 
necessarily "pure" news, i.e., they're often slanted toward a particular 
point of view.

Go back a few years, maybe 20 or more, and look at the front page of the 
L.A. Times (or probably any big-city paper). Many or most news pieces 
written by UPI, AP, etc., now 100% are written internally.

What y'all might want to think about is not just slanting and bias, but 
how certain people and organizations can actually *plant* a phony story 
on page one of a major paper like the L.A. Times. Go back a few months 
and check out the front-page article on real estate prices in the Calif. 
"Ventura Keys" area. Totally false. Story alleged that prices were 
"skyrocketing"; prices actually were absolutely flat, after having 
fallen by 35% or more in the previous couple of years.

Whoever authorized this story, if they didn't get a big kickback or gain 
some points for some future operation, then I can't imagine why they 
would print such a thing.

I hate to suggest anyone become more cynical than they already are, but, 
the front page(s) of a big-city newspaper are some of the most valuable 
real estate in western civilization, so do the math....