There is nothing new under the sun. Here comes M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote this wonderful story about the problems of lies in the media and the naivety of readers back in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Once upon a time there was a newspaperman, and there was a reader. The newspaperman was a deceiver - he deceived everything, but the reader was gullible - he believed everything. This is how it has been in the world since ancient times: deceivers deceive, and the gullible believe. Suum cuique. (To each his own)
The newspaperman sits in his den and knows how to deceive and deceive. “Beware! - he says, “diphtheria is killing the townsfolk!” “There has been no rain,” he says, “from the very beginning of spring - look, we’ll be left without bread!” “Fires are destroying villages and cities!” “They are dragging government and public goods apart!” And the reader reads and thinks that the newspaperman opens his eyes. “Such, he says, we have freedom of printing: wherever you look, there is either diphtheria, or a fire, or a crop failure.”
Further more. The newspaperman realized that his deceptions were to the heart of the reader - he began to give in even more. “We don’t have any security,” he says! “Don’t go out,” the reader says, “on the street: you’ll just end up in jail!” A gullible reader walks like a gogol down the street and says: “Oh, how correctly the newspaperman expressed himself about our insecurity!” Not only that: he will meet another gullible reader and ask: “Have you read how wonderfully the newspaperman talked about our insecurity today?” - “How not to read! - another gullible reader will note, - incomparable! You can’t, you can’t just walk through our streets - now you’ll end up in jail!”
And everyone can’t boast enough about the freedom of printing. “We didn’t know that we had diphtheria everywhere,” gullible readers sing in unison, “but here it is!” And because of this confidence, their souls became so easy that if this same newspaperman had now told him that he had diphtheria, but it was all gone, perhaps they would have stopped reading his newspaper.
And the newspaperman is happy about this, because for him deception is a direct benefit. Not everyone gets the truth - go get it! — you probably won’t be able to pay ten kopecks off the line for it! Is it a deception? Know, write and deceive. Five kopecks from a line - whole heaps of deceptions will be inflicted on you from all sides!
And the newspaperman developed such a friendship with the reader that you couldn’t spill them with water. The more a newspaperman deceives, the more he gets rich (and what else does a deceiver want!);
And the reader, who is deceived more, brings more nickels to the newspaperman. And drinking, and take-away - every newspaper guy makes a penny!
“Both drinking and takeaway.” - This expression, when applied to the press, denoting the unprincipledness and corruption of its figures, was used by Lenin in the article “Career” (1912) when characterizing Suvorin’s “New Time”.
“There were no pants! - envious people say about him, - and now, look how he trumps! Hired a flatterer! I started a storyteller from folk life! Blissful!”
Other newspapermen tried to bait him with the truth - maybe, they say, the subscriber will run to our bait - so where are you going! The reader doesn’t want to know anything, he just repeats one thing:
The darkness of low truths is dearer to me
A deception that exalts us...
The darkness of low truths is dearer to me... - From Pushkin’s “Hero”.
Whether it took a long time or a short time, things went on like this, but they just found good people, who took pity on the gullible reader. They called in the deceiving newspaperman and told him: “It will be done with you, shameless and unfaithful man! Until now you have been trading in deception, but from now on, trade in the truth!”
Yes, by the way, the readers began to sober up a little and began sending tsidulki to the newspaperman. Today, they say, I was walking along Nevsky with my daughter, thinking about spending the night at Sezhaya (my daughter even stocked up on sandwiches, just in case, and said: “Oh, how fun it will be!”), But instead, both returned home safely... Because How about reconciling such a comforting fact with your editorials about our insecurity?
Naturally, the newspaperman, for his part, was just waiting for this. Frankly speaking, he himself was tired of deceiving. His heart had long been inclined towards the truth, but what can you do if the reader only falls for deception! You cry and you deceive. Now, when they are pestering him from all sides with a knife to his throat to tell him the truth, well, he is ready! The truth, the truth, damn it! He made two stone houses by deception, but the remaining two stone houses have to be made by the truth!
And he began to pester the reader every day with the truth! No diphtheria, and no Sabbath! And there are no prisons, and there are no fires; Even if Konotop burned out, after the fire it was built even better. And the harvest, thanks to the warm rains, turned out to be such that they themselves ate and ate, and finally they began to throw them under the table for the Germans: choke!
But what’s most remarkable is that the newspaper publishes only the truth, and only pays five kopecks per line. And the price of truth has fallen since they began to sell it in drinking alcohol. It turns out that the truth, that deception is worth nothing. And the newspaper columns not only did not become more boring because of this, but became even more lively. Because if you start to thoroughly dissolve the goodness of the air, the picture that will come out is that you give everything, and even not enough!
Finally, the reader finally sobered up and regained his sight. And before, life was not bad for him when he accepted deception as truth, but now his heart was completely relieved. He goes into a bakery and they tell him: “Over time, bread will be cheaper!”; he looks into a chicken shop and they tell him: “Over time, hazel grouse won’t matter at all!”
- Well, how’s it going so far?
- As long as one ruble and twenty kopecks per pair!
Here's the one, with by God's help, turn!
And then, one day, a gullible reader came out into the street like a dandy. He walks, “in the hope of glory and goodness,” and waves his cane: know, they say, that from now on I am completely provided for!
“...in the hope of glory and goodness”... - From Pushkin’s “Stanzas”.
But this time, as luck would have it, the following happened:
Before he could take a few steps, a legal error occurred and he was put in jail.
He sat there all day without eating. Because even though he was treated to food, he looked and looked, but only said: “Here they are, our harvests, what are they!”
There he contracted diphtheria.
Of course, the next day the legal error was explained, and he was released on bail (this is not an equal case, and it will be needed again). He returned home and died.
And the deceiving newspaperman is still alive. He brings the fourth stone house under the roof and from morning to evening he thinks about one thing: what is better for him to deceive the gullible reader: with deception or with the truth?
This work by Saltykov-Shchedrin will always be relevant. It tells about a certain newspaperman and reader. At the beginning of the tale, the newspaperman simply made up news, and the reader happily bought the newspapers and believed everything that was written in them.
And the newspaperman wrote about everything that came to mind: about rains that would leave the population without crops, about fires that destroy entire villages, about an epidemic of diphtheria, etc.
Under the pretext of “freedom of printing,” he composed news on any topic, as long as the reader bought newspapers from him.
And he bought, believed everything and was glad that his eyes were opened, and discussed this news with other equally gullible readers. Moreover, he easily found confirmation of what the dreamer-newspaperman wrote about. That's how gullible he was!
And the newspaperman is happy to try, because he began to receive a considerable income, he has already built two stone houses for himself.
So everything went on as usual, one writes, another reads - everyone is happy. And suddenly good people appeared, they shamed the newspaperman and urged him to write the truth, and not fool the reader.
And the reader himself sometimes began to doubt the veracity of the news, since it did not always correspond to reality.
It would seem that now is the time to think and start looking at the world with your own eyes, and not through the prism of someone else’s opinion or fantasies. But no, this thought flashed and disappeared. The reader did not develop it. Apparently, it’s easier for him to live in someone else’s mind, rather than “turn on” his own brain.
The newspaperman immediately adapted to the new circumstances and, in order not to lose the reader, began to write the truth. The news has become different: there are no diseases, there are no fires, and they don’t go to prison for anything, and thanks to the rains, there is so much harvest that they even began to sell the surplus to the Germans. And the reader believes and rejoices even more that now his eyes have truly been opened!
And then one day he was walking down the street, and suddenly he was taken to prison by mistake, and the newspapers wrote that this could not happen! The reader was fed poorly there, despite the promised good harvest, and he also fell ill with diphtheria in prison, although the same newspapers wrote that there was no epidemic of diphtheria! Then everything quickly became clear, the reader was released, but when he arrived home, he immediately died.
But the newspaperman lives, continues to write news, and has already built his fourth house. The only thing that worries him is what news is best to attract such gullible readers - truthful or not.
At first sight, bad guy here is a newspaperman who is ready to invent any news for the sake of profit, and the reader is his victim, who died, it would seem, through the fault of the newspaperman. But a newspaperman simply earns his living by doing what he can: he writes news, sells goods. And, as you know, demand creates supply. The newspaperman did not force the reader to buy newspapers, much less blindly believe everything. The newspaperman has no goal of lying or manipulating the reader, because at the request of good people he immediately began to write the truth. The newspaperman loves his job and his business is successful.
The negative hero here is the reader, who finds it easier to live in someone else’s mind. And he most likely died of disappointment, since finding himself in circumstances that contradicted what was written in the newspapers, the reader suddenly realized that he could not believe what was written, and his world collapsed. Although this world was not his, but invented by a newspaperman, the reader never understood this.
This fairy tale will always be relevant, because there have always been, are and will be such gullible readers. They do not have their own opinion, and they easily change it depending on who likes it. this moment believe. They never make decisions themselves, because others do it for them, and gullible readers don’t even notice this. They are easy to manipulate. Nowadays the Internet and television are widely used for this. People are presented with information the way they need it, and information operations are part of hybrid wars.
However, it is very difficult to free such people from other people’s influence, since they are not ready for this. The fairy tale mentions certain “good people” who urged the newspaperman not to fool the reader. And this good undertaking ended for the reader not only with nothing, but very sadly.
The deceiving newspaperman and the gullible reader Read the Tale of Saltykov-Shchedrin
Once upon a time there was a newspaperman, and there was a reader. The newspaperman was a deceiver - he deceived everything, but the reader was gullible - he believed everything. This is how it has been in the world since ancient times: deceivers deceive, and the gullible believe. Suum cuique [To each his own (lat.)].
The newspaperman sits in his den and knows how to deceive and deceive. “Beware!” he says, “diphtheria is killing the townsfolk!” “There has been no rain,” he says, “from the very beginning of spring - look, we’ll be left without bread!” "Fires are destroying villages and cities!" “Government and public goods are being dragged apart!” And the reader reads and thinks that the newspaperman opens his eyes. “Such,” he says, “we have freedom of printing: wherever you look, there is either diphtheria, or a fire, or a crop failure”...
Further more. The newspaperman realized that his deceptions were to the heart of the reader - he began to give in even more. “We don’t have any security,” he says! “Don’t go out,” the reader says, “you’ll just end up in jail!” And the gullible reader walks like a gogol down the street and says: “Oh, how correctly the newspaperman expressed himself about our insecurity!” Not only that: he will meet another gullible reader and ask: “Have you read how wonderfully the newspaperman talked about our insecurity today?” - “How can you not read it!” another gullible reader will answer, “incomparable! You can’t, you can’t, walk down our streets - now you’ll end up in jail!”
And everyone can’t boast enough about the freedom of printing. “We didn’t know that we had diphtheria everywhere,” gullible readers sing in unison, “but that’s what it is!” And because of this confidence, their souls became so easy that if this same newspaperman had now told him that he had diphtheria, but it was all gone, perhaps they would have stopped reading his newspaper.
And the newspaperman is happy about this, because for him deception is a direct benefit. Not everyone gets the truth - go get it! - you probably won’t be able to pay ten kopecks off the line for it! Is it a deception? Know, write and deceive. Five kopecks from a line - whole heaps of deceptions will be inflicted on you from all sides!
And the newspaperman developed such a friendship with the reader that you couldn’t spill them with water. The more a newspaperman deceives, the more he gets rich (and what else does a deceiver want!); and the reader, who is deceived more, brings more nickels to the newspaperman. And drinking, and take-away - every newspaper guy makes a penny!
“There weren’t any pants!” envious people say about him, “and now, look how he trumps! He hired himself a flatterer! He started a storyteller from the people’s life! He’s blissful!”
Other newspapermen tried to bait him with the truth - maybe, they say, the subscriber will run to our bait - so where are you going! The reader doesn’t want to know anything, he just repeats one thing:
The darkness of low truths is dearer to me
A deception that exalts us...
Whether things went on like this for a long time or for a short time, there were only kind people who took pity on the gullible reader. They called in the deceiving newspaperman and said to him: “It will be done with you, shameless and unfaithful man! Until now you have been trading in deception, but from now on - trade in the truth!”
Yes, by the way, the readers began to sober up a little and began sending tsidulki to the newspaperman. Today, they say, I was walking along Nevsky with my daughter, thinking about spending the night at Sezhaya (my daughter even stocked up on sandwiches, just in case, - she said: “Oh, how fun it will be!”), But instead, both returned home safely... Because How about reconciling such a comforting fact with your editorials about our insecurity?
Naturally, the newspaperman, for his part, was just waiting for this. Frankly speaking, he himself was tired of deceiving. His heart had long been inclined towards the truth, but what can you do if the reader only falls for deception! You cry and you deceive. Now, when they are pestering him from all sides with a knife to his throat to tell him the truth, well, he is ready! The truth, the truth, damn it! He made two stone houses by deception, but the remaining two stone houses have to be made by the truth!
And he began to pester the reader every day with the truth! No diphtheria, and no Sabbath! And there are no prisons, and there are no fires; Even if Konotop burned out, after the fire it was built even better. And the harvest, thanks to the warm rains, turned out to be such that they themselves ate and ate, and finally they began to throw them under the table for the Germans: choke!
But what’s most remarkable is that the newspaperman prints only the truth, and only pays five kopecks per line. And the price of truth has fallen since they began to sell it in drinking alcohol. It turns out that the truth, that deception is worth nothing. And the newspaper columns not only did not become more boring because of this, but became even more lively. Because if you start to closely dissolve the goodness of the air, the picture that will come out is that you give everything, and even little!
Finally, the reader finally sobered up and regained his sight. And before, life was not bad for him when he accepted deception as truth, but now his heart was completely relieved. If he goes into a bakery, they tell him: “In time, bread will be cheaper!”; he goes into a chicken shop, and they tell him: “Of course, in time, hazel grouse won’t matter at all!”
Well, how's it going so far?
As long as one ruble and twenty kopecks per pair! What a turnaround, with God's help!
And then, one day, a gullible reader came out into the street like a dandy. He walks, “in the hope of glory and goodness,” and waves his cane: know, they say, that from now on I am completely provided for!
But this time, as luck would have it, the following happened:
Before he could take a few steps, a legal error occurred and he was put in jail.
He sat there all day without eating. Because even though he was treated to food, he looked and looked, but only said: “Here they are, our harvests, what are they!”
There he contracted diphtheria.
Of course, the next day the legal error was explained, and he was released on bail (this is not an equal case, and it will be needed again). He returned home and died.
And the deceiving newspaperman is still alive. He brings the fourth stone house under the roof and from morning to evening he thinks about one thing: what is better for him to deceive the gullible reader: with deception or with the truth?
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Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin
The deceiving newspaperman and the gullible reader
* * *
Once upon a time there lived a newspaperman and once upon a time there lived a reader. The newspaperman was a deceiver - he deceived everything, but the reader was gullible - he believed everything. This is how it has been in the world since ancient times: deceivers deceive, and the gullible believe. Suum coique.
The newspaperman sits in his den and knows how to deceive and deceive. “Beware! - he says, - diphtheria is killing the townsfolk! “There has been no rain,” he says, “from the very beginning of spring - look, we’ll be left without bread!” “Fires are destroying villages and cities!” “They are dragging government and public goods apart!” And the reader reads and thinks that the newspaperman opens his eyes. “Such,” he says, “we have freedom of printing: wherever you look, there is either diphtheria, or a fire, or a crop failure. . ."
Further more. The newspaperman realized that his deceptions were to the heart of the reader - he began to give in even more. “We don’t have any security,” he says! “Don’t go out,” the reader says, “on the street: you’ll just end up in jail!” And the gullible reader walks like a gogol down the street and says: “Oh, how correctly the newspaperman expressed himself about our insecurity!” Not only that: he will meet another gullible reader and ask: “Have you read how wonderfully the newspaperman talked about our insecurity today?” - “How not to read! - another gullible reader will answer, - incomparable! You can’t, you can’t, walk through our streets - now you’ll end up in jail!”
And everyone can’t boast enough about the freedom of printing. “We didn’t know that we had diphtheria everywhere,” gullible readers sing in unison, “but here it is!” And because of this confidence, their souls became so easy that if this same newspaperman had now told him that he had diphtheria, but it was all gone, perhaps they would have stopped reading his newspaper.
And the newspaperman is happy about this, because for him deception is a direct benefit. Not everyone gets the truth - go get it! – you probably won’t be able to pay ten kopecks off the line for it! Is it a deception? Know, write and deceive. Five kopecks from a line - whole heaps of deceptions will be inflicted on you from all sides!
And the newspaperman developed such a friendship with the reader that you couldn’t spill them with water. The more a newspaperman deceives, the more he gets rich (and what else does a deceiver want!); and the reader, who is deceived more, brings more nickels to the newspaperman. And drinking, and take-away - every newspaper guy makes a penny!
“There were no pants! - envious people say about him, - and now, look how he trumps! Hired a flatterer! I started a storyteller from folk life! Blissful!”
Other newspapermen tried to bait him with the truth - maybe, they say, the subscriber will run to our bait - so where are you going! The reader doesn’t want to know anything, he just repeats one thing:
The darkness of low truths is dearer to me
A deception that exalts us...
Whether things went on like this for a long time or for a short time, there were only kind people who took pity on the gullible reader. They called in the deceiving newspaperman and told him: “It will be done with you, shameless and unfaithful man! Until now you have been trading in deception, but from now on, trade in the truth!”
Yes, by the way, the readers began to sober up a little and began sending tsidulki to the newspaperman. Today, they say, I was walking along Nevsky with my daughter, thinking about spending the night at Sezzhaya (my daughter even stocked up on sandwiches, just in case, - she said: “Oh, how fun it will be!”), But instead, both returned home safely... So how, they say, should such a comforting fact be reconciled with your editorials about our insecurity?
Naturally, the newspaperman, for his part, was just waiting for this. Frankly speaking, he himself was tired of deceiving. His heart had long been inclined towards the truth, but what can you do if the reader only falls for deception! You cry and you deceive. Now, when they are pestering him from all sides with a knife to his throat to tell him the truth, well, he is ready! The truth, the truth, damn it! He made two stone houses by deception, but the remaining two stone houses have to be made by the truth!
And he began to pester the reader every day with the truth! No diphtheria, and no Sabbath! And there are no prisons, and there are no fires; Even if Konotop burned out, after the fire it was built even better. And the harvest, thanks to the warm rains, turned out to be such that they themselves ate and ate, and finally they began to throw them under the table for the Germans: choke!
But what’s most remarkable is that the newspaperman prints only the truth, and only pays five kopecks per line. And the price of truth has fallen since they began to sell it in drinking alcohol. It turns out that the truth, that deception is worth nothing. And the newspaper columns not only did not become more boring because of this, but became even more lively. Because if you start to thoroughly dissolve the goodness of the air, the picture that will come out is that you give everything, and even not enough!
Finally, the reader finally sobered up and regained his sight. And before, life was not bad for him when he accepted deception as truth, but now his heart was completely relieved. He’ll go into a bakery and they’ll tell him: “In time, bread will be cheaper!”; he’ll look into a chicken shop and they’ll tell him: “Over time, hazel grouse won’t matter at all!”
- Well, how’s it going so far?
- As long as one ruble and twenty kopecks per pair!
What a turnaround, with God's help!
And then one day a gullible reader came out into the street like a dandy. He walks, “in the hope of glory and goodness,” and waves his cane: know, they say, that from now on I am completely provided for!
But this time, as luck would have it, the following happened:
Before he could take a few steps, a legal error occurred and he was put in jail.
He sat there all day without eating. Because even though he was treated to food, he looked and looked, but only said: “Here they are, our harvests, what are they!”
There he contracted diphtheria.
Of course, the next day the legal error was explained, and he was released on bail (this is not an equal case, and it will be needed again). He returned home and died.
And the deceiving newspaperman is still alive. He brings the fourth stone house under the roof and from morning to evening he thinks about one thing: what is better for him to deceive the gullible reader: with deception or with the truth?