Where has the truth gone?
Facts have become malleable in a world where traditional sources have been set in competition
against loud voices that tell you what you want to hear.
Daily newspapers have been thinning for decades. TV news continues but their ratings have
declined. Cable TV has vastly increased choices of channels, but many cater to a partisan
view. And now the Internet is providing slices of slices. If you hate, you can find whole
communities that share your animus.
It’s unsettling and disappointing.
Not so long-ago, media used to provide an array of positive cases where you could hear the
other person’s perspective even if you didn’t agree. The other side wasn’t the enemy. They
were just misguided, and you could say that in an amused way.
However anymore, disrespect is common. Being insulting seems to have only one purpose, to
diminish people, to impugn honesty and intelligence. I doubt many people embrace such
hateful behavior as in my life I’ve rarely encountered it.
But certainly, such attitudes are epidemic today. So while the Internet is spreading hate, we’re
having to understand how ChatGBT and similar software are dissolving the line between
fact and fiction.
For our part, we will continue to provide the history of book transactions, 13+ million listings
strong, exactly as they were when created a day or a century and a half ago. No rewriting of
history, no spin, no cleansing of the past, no point of view. In the inestimable words of Joe
Friday, “Just the facts, ma'am.” We will keep our databases separate and distinct from the
emerging irreality.
This is our promise.
