www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Opinion
Home / Opinion / Op-Ed Contributors

Living with the Internet rumor mill

By William Daniel Garst | China Daily | Updated: 2013-05-17 08:28

Living with the Internet rumor mill

 

'Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it," said the great 18th century writer Jonathan Swift in his essay, The Art of Political Lying. When Swift made his sage observation, the mass circulation press (and its readership) was in its infancy.

More than a century later, a mature print media - the so-called yellow press - sparked the 1898 Spanish-American War by claiming that the USS Maine had been destroyed by a Spanish mine. Modern investigations suggest that the spontaneous combustion of volatile bituminous coal was a more likely cause of the explosion on and sinking of the battleship.

Four decades later, using the then new media of radio, Orson Welles created a mass panic with his "War of the Worlds" broadcast, saying Martians had invaded Earth. After the Lushan earthquake in Sichuan province on April 20, a similar apocalyptic rumor, this one warning that a big quake would destroy the provincial capital Chengdu, needlessly sent many people in Sichuan into a tizzy.

The earthquake rumor, of course, was spread through the Internet. Thanks to the speed at which word travels through the Web and the number of people who surf it today, falsehood really does fly in cyberspace, while truth all too often comes limping after it.

This situation is more or less tolerated in the United States as part of the tradeoff for free expression. Indeed, to successfully prosecute or sue someone for libel, a person has to not only show that the statement made was false, but also prove that it was made with malicious intent. The second criterion is difficult to meet, and anyone who is a "public figure" is fair game for ridicule.

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

Most Viewed in 24 Hours
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 日本三级欧美三级人妇英文 | 免费特黄一区二区三区视频一 | 亚洲日韩中文字幕在线播放 | 国产99久久 | 久久免费视频网站 | 亚洲精品福利一区二区三区 | 久草视频官网 | 成人手机在线视频 | 毛片视频网站在线观看 | 中文字幕水野优香在线网在线 | 国产日韩欧美在线观看不卡 | 精品极品三级久久久久 | 国产在线一区二区三区欧美 | 欧美午夜a级精美理论片 | 久草视频2 | 99在线热视频 | 国产亚洲精品一区二区在线观看 | 手机在线看片国产日韩生活片 | 国产成人亚洲综合无 | 99精品国产兔费观看久久99 | 国产小视频在线高清播放 | 成人在线午夜 | 91久热| 久久色婷婷 | 午夜宅男在线永远免费观看网 | 免费在线观看黄色毛片 | 正在播放国产大学生情侣 | 亚洲人成影院在线高清 | 永久黄网站色视频免费观看99 | 日本三级香港三级三级人!妇久 | 亚洲视频网站在线观看 | 国产男女爽爽爽免费视频 | 手机看片国产免费 | 一区二区影视 | 亚洲天堂美女视频 | 天天草综合 | 午夜宅男在线永远免费观看网 | 99视频免费在线 | 免费又黄又爽视频 | 国产免费久久精品99re丫y | 免费人成在观看 |