5336 RE: #5343: Aristide's "illness" in the news: Reply to Chamberlai n #5335 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Karen Davis <kdavis@marygrove.edu>

Mr. "anonymous" does not seem to understand the qurestion--not when & where
have allegations about Aristide's health been printed, but where is there
any documentation to suggest the allegations are TRUE and not propoganda?
I am currently teaching a unit on so-called "urban myths" (which include
tales that are untrue, or, at least, never documented, which yet circulate
widely in rural & urban contemporary USA (& other nations), which are widely
believed to be true. Such myths as the cement-filled Cadillac have actually
been printed as "news" in several newspapers throughout the USA by our
gullible "journalists" always on the trail of a hot scoop, and not always
officially retracted. 
Let us also remember that the suspicion that follows gossip, no matter how
false, is almost impossible to erase.
And let us not also forget the many "true" news stories (Suzanne Smith,
anyone?) later proven to be NOT true.
Finally, let us not forget that politics is a game of winning, not truth.
Willie Horton, anyone?
I once heard that Aristide actually ate human babies for breakfast. If I
believe it, does that make it true? I also actually once saw IN PRINT that
the newly sworn Pres. Johnson committed a sex act on Pres. Kennedy's bullet
wound--that one was printed by Paul Krassner SPECIFICALLY to remind everyone
that what is printed is not necessarily true. I also was told once by a NY
Times editor that they would NOT retract an untrue and libelous story about
specific people in Barbados unless the prime minister himself personally
requested the retraction.
Would you like to start a rumor that Karen Davis is mentally disturbed? a
psycopath? Unreliable? Unstable? Open to mood swings? Liable to violence?
See how easy it is?
Karen Davis