Friday 5 September 2014

Голландское письмо

По поводу письма с извинениями Путину от имени голландцев, якобы написанного известным голландским профессором. Мне надоели все эти споры, фейк это или не фейк, поэтому я просто написал профессору имейл, задав ему простой вопрос - писал он это письмо или нет (как по-моему уже давным давно должны были сделать другие журналисты). Ниже - ответ. Dear Sir or Madam, Thanks for your message, The open letter to president Putin was written by the editors of a Dutch magazine called De Ommekeer. They added to the letter a reference to a public lecture on the Internet that I held for the University of the Netherlands. In the lecture I argue that we should be very cautious and critical when judging truth and deception in the daily provision of global news in the media. Several bloggers and web site editors took this to mean that I wrote the letter and forwarded it with my name as the author. I share the sentiments expressed in the letter about the –often – less than reliable ways the news media report about events in the world. In many cases the pressure to report is so strong that conclusions are drawn much too early. I do indeed wish that journalists (my old profession) would be more prudent in their work and would more often say “I have no idea about what precisely happened” before suggesting that they bring us the full story. Journalists are -by and large- easy victims for the world’s propagandists and “spindoctors” . All presidents around the world (whether they are called Obama or Putin) use “perception managers” to make us believe their interpretation of reality. Writing open letters to them does not change this. What helps is if we mobilize a critical mass of media users around the globe: people that ask “but is it true?”. If the letter that I did NOT write contributes to this movement something good came out of a very unfortunate process. With my cordial greetings, Prof. Dr Cees Hamelink , professor emeritus global communication, University of Amsterdam