The news stories on Theo Van Gogh's memorial services attributed the leaving of cactus plants by mourners to his having had a "prickly personality." Yet at least one story reported that Van Gogh used to give guests a cactus plant when they appeared on his television talk show. Obviously, mourners left cactus plants because they were a trademark of Van Gogh.
This is a minor detail, but sometimes a minor detail can suddenly make one aware of the tenuousness of the faith we can put in all our sources of news. When you read a novel the author asks you to suspend belief for the duration. When you read a media article, you are asked to excercise belief. In other words, the media asks us to suspend disbelief.
Since beginning this blog, I read news articles differently, more critically. When you begin to deconstruct the information flow of the media, you must begin to question.
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