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June 15, 2005<br>
<br>
<h1><b>The Interactive Truth</b></h1>
By STACY SCHIFF <br>
<br>
It used to be that the longest unprotected border in the world was that
between the United States and Canada. Today it's the one between fact
and
fiction. If the two cozy up any closer together The National Enquirer
will be out of business.<br>
<br>
More than 60 percent of the American people don't trust the press. Why
should they? They've been reading "The Da Vinci Code" and
marveling at its historical insights. I have nothing against a fine
thriller, especially one that claims the highest of literary honors:
it's
a movie on the page. But "The Da Vinci Code" is not a work of
nonfiction. If one more person talks to me about Dan Brown's
crackerjack
research I'm shooting on sight. <br>
<br>
The novel's success does point up something critical. We're happier to
swallow a half-baked Renaissance religious conspiracy theory than to
examine the historical fiction we're living (and dying for) today. And
not only is it remarkably easy to believe what we want to believe. It's
remarkably easy to find someone who will back us up. Twenty-five years
ago George W. S. Trow meditated on this in "Within the Context of No
Context." Then it indeed appeared that authority and orthodoxy were
wilting in the glare of television. Have we exterminated reason in the
meantime? <br>
<br>
If you are 6 years old and both your parents read one online, you can
be
forgiven for not knowing what a newspaper is. You would also be on to
something. The news has slipped its moorings. It is no longer held
captive by two-inch columns of type or a sonorous 6 p.m. baritone. It
has
gone on the lam. Anyone can be a reporter - or a book reviewer, TV
star,
museum guide, podcaster or pundit. <br>
<br>
This week
<a
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-ednote12jun12,0,3840544.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials">The
Los Angeles Times announced</a> its intention to exile the square and
stodgy voice of authority farther yet. The paper will launch an
interactive editorial page. "We'll have some editorials where you
can go online and edit an editorial to your satisfaction," the
page's editor says. "It's the ultimate in reader
participation," explains his boss, Michael Kinsley. Let's hope the
interactive editorial will lead directly to the interactive tax return.
On the other hand, I hope we might stop short before we get to
structural
engineering and brain surgery. Some of us like our truth the way we
like
our martinis: dry and straight up. <br>
<br>
Kinsley takes as his model Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia to
which anyone can contribute, and which grows by accretion and
consensus.
Relatedly, it takes as its premise the idea that "facts" belong
between quotation marks. It's a winning formula; Wikipedia is one of
the
Web's most popular sites. I asked a teenager if he understood that it
carries a disclaimer; Wikipedia "can't guarantee the validity of the
information found here." "That's just so that no one will sue
them," he shrugged. As to the content: "It's all true,
mostly." <br>
<br>
What if we all vote on the truth? We don't need to, because we will be
overruled by what becomes a legend most: entertainment. Twenty-one
percent of young Americans get their news from comedy shows. Journalism
once counted as the first draft of history. Today that would be
screenwriting.
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/opinion/12rich.html">As
Frank
Rich reminds us</a>, the enduring line from Watergate - "Follow the
money" - was not Deep Throat's. It was William Goldman's. And
"Show me the money" was Cameron Crowe, not President
Bush.<br>
<br>
Evidently Deep Throat himself carped, pre-Watergate, that newspapers
failed to get to the bottom of things. Of course apocrypha have always
had staying power. That story about the cherry tree was a lie.
Especially
in unsettled times, we love conspiracy theories. They are comforting
and
safe. You can go out with a conspiracy theory after dark and not worry
about foul play. Before Oliver Stone there was Shakespeare, although he
generally had the good grace to let a century or two go by before he
contorted history. <br>
<br>
What is new is our odd, bipolar approach to fact. We have a fresh taste
for documentaries. Any novelist will tell you that readers hunger for
nonfiction, which may explain the number of historical figures who have
crowded into our novels. Facts seem important. Facts have gravitas. But
the illusion of facts will suffice. One in three Americans still
believes
there were W.M.D.'s in Iraq.<br>
<br>
And that's the way it is. <br>
<br>
Maureen Dowd is on book leave.<br>
Stacy Schiff, the author of
<a
href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807E3DA1F3FF935A35757C0A9639C8B63&n=Top%2fFeatures%2fBooks%2fBook%20Reviews">"A
Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of
America"</a> and a Pulitzer Prize winner, is a guest columnist for
two weeks.<br>
E-mail:
<a href="mailto:schiff@nytimes.com">schiff@nytimes.com</a><br>
<br>
<a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/15/opinion/15schiff.html?th&emc=th"
eudora="autourl">
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/15/opinion/15schiff.html?th&emc=th</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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