Kev Kennedy's Blog

The story behind the story

I enjoy mocking people who espouse conspiracy theories. Take for example, the hoo-hah surrounding any major event in recent years, like the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, or the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Sooner or later you’ll get a telly programme about it, where a conspiracy nutter says:

“Well, there seems to be a tiny piece of missing data in the official story so that obviously means there’s a GOVERNMENT COVER UP! What are they hiding?”

And the response of the government is “We’re not hiding anything.” Which instantly proves they must be hiding something, because that’s exactly what they’d say if they were hiding something, isn’t it!?!?!

Now it’s easy to dismiss the less-than-lucid arguments of conspiracy theorists as rambling nonsense. But what about when stuff gets picked up in the press and is both amplified and simplified at the same time. Suddenly we get stories about how eating the wrong kind of lentil might kill you, but at the same time a handful of JuJu Berries will definitely cure cancer.

(Or, to locate the point of this blog post in a story which is more controversial, the news coverage that a vaccine which prevents hundreds of children catching life-threatening diseases every week may give your kid autism, followed by a panic scare over the impending ‘epidemic’ of measles…)

And all the while the people behind these stories have their own agendas to push. The 9/11 conspiracy theorists have books they’re hawking. The people leading the campaign to give every child in the country JuJu Berries, just happen to have JuJu Berry farms. The people damning vaccinations handily have some 'alternative' therapies you can use.

Maybe I’m a natural cynic, but to me the test of a story’s truthfulness lies in who profits from the story.
 

Created on Mon 29th September 2008 14:44