Fake Check

From our political correspondent Dorothy "Lottie" Dawe:

We definitely live in the age of false facts and fake news.  Just Google-search “fake news in 2016” and you’ll get quite an eye-full. 
 
Here’s a screen shot of some of what popped up when I did a search.  I had to click on the one topic, “The top fake news stories of 2016 were about the Pledge, poop, and …”  I had to find out what the “and” referred to.  It turned out to be “and the Pope”!

The link to that story is HERE.
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All of the fake news, the counterfeit truth, the phony headlines, the bogus bulletins and the outrageous tweets are particularly frightening when we have a president-elect who is actively working to suppress the truth and to stifle free press. 
 
Hugo Black, a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, said, “The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to bare the secrets of government and inform the people.”  We cannot allow Donald Trump to inhibit or obstruct the freedom of the press no matter how ugly the real truth is.


Of course, Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed –at her request) was quite a visionary.  He foresaw this age of fake news, and he wrote about it in his now-classic poem “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant” (below on the left).  His poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem with the same opening line (below on the right).
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By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –
Success in False Facts lies
So Poorly Educated fall
For “Truth’s” bizarre surprise.
 
As Lightning to the Victim struck
And left a muddled mind
The “Truth” must startle rapidly
So everyone is blind –

By Emily Dickinson:
 
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
 
As lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind –