Don’t Believe Everything You Read (comments on fake news, 1625 style)
From
Lapham's Deja vu:
When the first booklets reporting on foreign
affairs were published in 1620s London, they were met with immediate
distrust. Ben Jonson described a weekly news organization as “a weekly
cheat to draw mony” in The Staple of News (1625). In his satirical sketches Whimzies: or a New Cast of Characters, Richard Brathwait also seized on public furor to decry the corrupt journalist:
Thanks to his good invention, he can
collect much out of a very little: no matter though more experienced
judgements disprove him; he is anonymous, and that will secure him. To
make his reports more credible, more vendible, in the relation of every
occurrent: he renders you the day of the month; and to approve himself a
scholar, he annexeth these Latin parcels, or parcel-gilt sentences, verteri stylo, novo stylo.
He has now tied himself apprentice to the trade of minting: and must
weekly perform his task, or (beside the loss which accrues to himself)
he disappoints a number of no small fools, whose discourse, discipline,
and discretion is drilled from his state-service.
He would make you
believe that he were known to some foreign intelligence, but I hold him
the wisest man that hath the least faith to believe him. For his
relations he stands resolute, whether they become approved or evinced
for untruths; which if they be, he has contracted with his face never to
blush for the matter.
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