And NBC news tonite was reporting that "Right Wing Fake News" sources are trying to attack survivors by claiming a conspiracy... in which kids are accused of making up their statements.
When your conspiracy gets found out... I guess what you do... is accuse everyone else of being conspirators...
There was just a story on Drudge this week that "Fake Videos" are now so prevalent that you can't even believe the videos you see.
Live or Memorex is going to become more difficult... isn't it? When cameras and film and audio recordings were invented... everyone said that "well, we won't have to rely on inaccurate verbal descriptions any more. Until folks figured out how to fake all of the above.
Great bit of historical digging, BTW... historians looking at pictures taken of corpses on the Gettysburg Battlefield in the hours and days after the battle... were confused by the condition and positioning of the bodies of soldiers. The July days after the battle were horribly hot. The corpses of the fallen bloated terribly. Yet numerous pictures were taken showing bodies in very fine states of preservation. Then one sharp-eyed historian noticed that the face of one corpse looked very much like... the face of another one, taken on a different part of the battlefield. Research showed that same soldier showed up in several pictures.... the answer... he was very much alive and well... and was lying on the battlefield posing for the photographer. Who went on to sell these images in his gallery and to various newspapers. Apparently, buying photographs of dead soldiers was... a fad during the Civil War. And selling pictures was a way to make a quick buck for early 'photojournalists.'
So 'Is it real' is not a new problem. It's just that our brains are pretty wired to believe things we see on video... and in live motion. When it can all be faked... and faked so quickly as to appear... live, it calls into question anything one sees or hears. Doesn't it?
Cheers,
Sirhr