The power of the printed word

A group of US activists created a fake edition of the New York Times and distributed millions of free copies in several American cities. The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung sees the spoof, which among other things announced the end of the war in Iraq, as "a tribute to the power of the printed word, print news, its aura and its authority. ... In the Internet, where anyone ... can be his own director, there are countless pictures, films, texts and tones of usurped identity. ... Faking has become exceedingly easy in the age of electronic media, but also exceedingly inconsequential, at any rate much less significant than the effect of holy water on the devil, which we also know to be dwindling. But doesn't this make the production, financing and organised distribution by thousands of volunteers of this genuine fake and fake genuine newspaper all the more significant? While we laugh we notice that, more than simple parody, these pages contain a monstrous but at the same time comforting statement: The Iraq War, the Waterloo of reason the beginnings of which were broadcast on live television, has ended in a newspaper, in black-and-white print."

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Social movements, » U.S.