'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.'
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."
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.
Story emailed from friend http://www.mattpiette.com/blog/
By STACY SCHIFF
Published: June 15, 2005
