Things Lincoln never said

[David Lockmiller]

(02-09-2014 06:43 PM)L Verge Wrote:  As sort of a follow-up to your comments, David, I heard a news report last week about a study being conducted in Sweden (I think that was the country) on the effects that the internet and social media are having on this and future generations. The conductors of the study contend that the technological age of information is actually going to destroy humans' ability to think for ourselves. Bad information will be spread from pillar to post and passed through cyberspace without anyone questioning the sources and reliability.

Frankly, I can see that already happening with some people around me - including my straight-A grandson, whom I have to force to fact check. And, I will also admit that it was difficult to pull me away from my home set of Funk & Wagnalls of the 1950s in order to check out other sources

That's the very point that I have been trying so long to make about the "Lincoln" movie. People are going to "weight" the source of information when they have so many choices to make as to credibility on any given subject. A Spielberg movie on "Lincoln"? That will be the Gold standard. Even "60 Minutes" (another "Gold Standard" of truth, except for the Benghazi story) began Leslie Stahl's broadcast story on the "Lincoln" movie with the words: “The film is filled with things about our 16th President that we, who are not Lincoln scholars, did not know.” After viewing both, what do you think the response would be if you asked your straight-A grandson if there were any problems with historical facts in Spielberg's "Lincoln" movie?

Add to this that Director Spielberg, playwright Tony Kushner, and Oscar winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis all "loved" Lincoln. Each and all did a thorough historical research on the subject matter of the movie; long before the movie began a conference of preeminent Lincoln scholars met to discuss Lincoln with Spielberg and Kushner; some of these preeminent Lincoln scholars acted as advisors on the actual making of the movie; and Spielberg recorded the ticking of Lincoln's actual pocket watch (with permission of the Smithsonian) for the making of the movie.

And, yet, there was in the "Lincoln" movie a scene showing Mary Lincoln berating the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, for not pushing hard enough to gain passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. After seeing this section of the movie, what do you think your straight-A grandson would have to say about the character of President Abraham Lincoln? And, how would you go about correcting any misinformation that he had gained from watching Spielberg's "Lincoln" movie as to Abraham Lincoln, his actual relationship with his wife and Secretary of War, etc.? To what single scholarly resource would you direct your grandson to do his fact-checking on Spielberg's "Lincoln" movie?

I am not directing all of this to you personally. Please take no offense.

As you know from my earlier postings here on the "Lincoln" movie, I sent a letter to Leslie Stahl about the short comings of the "Lincoln" movie as to historical Lincoln facts. [No response.] And, after the "Benghazi" story broke in other major news media about this "60 Minutes" reporting failing, the chief executive over 60 Minutes, Mr. Fager, apologized to the public for the reporting errors. Thereafter, I sent to him a copy of my letter to Leslie Stahl on the deficiencies in the "Lincoln" movie segment. [No response.] Thereafter, I sent copies of my "Leslie Stahl" and "Mr. Fager" letters to Mr. Al Ortiz, the man who Mr. Fager appointed Executive Director of Standards and Practices at CBS News to "reduce the chances of a [Benghazi reporting fiasco] happening again." [No response.]

I have come to the conclusion that major news organizations will only admit their reporting mistakes when they absolutely have to do so. Another example of my failed efforts to correct a Lincoln historial fact was with the NY Times, the supposed "Gold standard" of truth in newspaper reporting. I tried several times to get the NY Times to print a retraction of the NSA Op-Ed hoax "Lincoln's Surveillance State" (July 5, 2013). I was "stonewalled."