Foolish Cat April 8th, 2008

So the L.A. Times has officially retracted its story that Sean Combs - Diddy - was involved in the 1994 beating of Tupac Shakur in New York City. The story offered that the assault was the beginning of the war between East and West coast rappers that included the murders of Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., and that Combs was a major influence in its proliferation.

Turns out the story was all bullshit, and was based on forged FBI documents. Forgeries that were apparently done by a small-time, sociopathic nobody while he was serving time in prison! Well done L.A. Times. Let that sink in: The Times printed a story accusing a wealthy celebrity of felony assault based on forged documents from a life-long criminal currently serving time for various crimes, including fraud.

And you know what, if it hadn’t been Diddy, say it had been me accused, everybody in the world would still believe it to be true. The only reason the story was retracted is because Diddy is rich - so he can afford the legal firepower - and famous - so reporters and fans listen when he speaks. He has the resources to wage war on a large newspaper and come away owning it. I don’t.

And for this reason, I have officially decided not to believe a story reported on any news channel or in any paper, simply because it is written or reported. All conspiracy theories are back on the table. 9/11. JFK. Roswell. I’m serious.

Think about it. Let’s say this story about Diddy was written, and we just accepted it as true - after all, the paper printed it. Nobody raised hell, it was just a story. And then someone came along and said it was all a lie. The paper used fake FBI documents forged by a fast-talking, crook while he was serving time. And the LA Times got a hold of these docs and printed the story. It’s all a lie. Who would believe that? There would be so many questions. What’s the motive? How did he forge these docs? How could the paper and a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter fall for this? It’s all too outrageous.

Until it’s not.

My new stance on the media doesn’t mean I won’t believe anything, it just means I’ll believe it if it makes sense. If something seems wrong, I won’t ignore the problems I have with the story. Especially in an election year.

In most cases, we are at the mercy of the media for our information - we can’t be everywhere to see news as it unfolds. So I guess the best we can do is to find those things that interest us, and then get as many different versions of the story as we can. The truth probably will still not exist in any of the stories, but hopefully we can decipher and decide what we believe in our hearts to be true.

Blunder on, fools.

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