How has 'spin' or 'narrative' became more important than actual truth?

[SuperDemocrat]

This is something that a lot of conservative news casters have brought up and I wonder how it is that controlling the narrative has became so important to politicians these days. The more troubling thing is how they are implementing strategies to control the narrative in order to get them into power. My theory is that we have been so accustomed to think that truth is a temporary thing in our mind and that from one moment to the next the truth changes. Since Truth is nothing more than what is real and what we think is true is what we think is real then if we believe that truth changes (not our opinion of it) then reality changes with it. The last time I checked a the weight of a rock has one true value to it. It can change unless you changed the actual weight of the rock but if we actually think that what we think is true is true then the weight of the rock can have multiple weights depending on what the moment is. The weight of the rock was x yesterday but today it is y and both of these values are accurate. We can control the narrative on what people think the weight of the rock is and by doing so we can control what the weight of the rock actually is. This clearly isn't possible to do but it seems that in today's politics the spin and narrative can change what people think is true, has been true, or will ever be true even if the current narrative is not true at all. It just allows politicians to lie and manipulate the people that they represent.

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

It's been going on in the legacy media since the days of William Randolph Hearst, and probably even before him.

 

[Ringel05]

It's been going on in the legacy media since the days of William Randolph Hearst, and probably even before him.

For our country we can go back in an unbroken chain to when we were still colonies and look to the Sons of Liberty to find spin and narrative. Prior to that we can go backward to when humans first learned to communicate with each other............

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

It's been going on in the legacy media since the days of William Randolph Hearst, and probably even before him.

For our country we can go back in an unbroken chain to when we were still colonies and look to the Sons of Liberty to find spin and narrative. Prior to that we can go backward to when humans first learned to communicate with each other............

I would agree. Also, I think the only reason it seems more prevalent today is that we didn't always have the internet and YouTube to expose the legacy media to the extent that we can today.

 

[Ringel05]

It's been going on in the legacy media since the days of William Randolph Hearst, and probably even before him.

For our country we can go back in an unbroken chain to when we were still colonies and look to the Sons of Liberty to find spin and narrative. Prior to that we can go backward to when humans first learned to communicate with each other............

I would agree. Also, I think the only reason it seems more prevalent today is that we didn't always have the internet and YouTube to expose the legacy media to the extent that we can today.

Back then it was pamphlet and word of mouth as times changed so did the delivery methods but it's always been virulent to one degree or another. It wasn't until relatively modern times that the media has tried to redefine itself as unbiased but only with moderate success and only in certain areas, historically for the most part the media has always been split and partisan. As you correctly pointed out this is simply a change in delivery modes, faster and easier communication, the partisanship is nothing new.