Ice Hockey Players
14-05-2004, 06:28
Recently a rash of made-up stories in the news media has created animosity between various groups; a fabricated story about a Bigtopian gang killing three Lilliputian children created race riots in @@NAME@@ City's largest suburbs. The legislature is being questioned about how to manage the cause of the problem - the media.
The Debate
1. "This is absolute madness!" exclaims @@RANDOMNAME@@, a social justice advocate. "Free presses are a great idea on paper, but look what they lead to! We need to make the news media print the truth! And if the truth isn't clear, they should say so! People deserve to lose jobs and news licenses over false stories, and maybe they should do some hard time while they're at it! There's no excuse for fabricating news stories!"
[effect]reporters frequently lose their jobs over fact-checking errors
[stats]civil rights decrease, cynicism decreases, safety increases, patriotism decreases
2. "How dare anyone try to take away a pillar of free society!" shouts @@RNADOMNAME@@ of the @@NAME@@ Civil Liberties Union. "Presses should stay free; it's the people's responsibility to decide what news sources they trust! Of course the rioters should be punished and the person who wrote the offending story effectively discredited, but that's the people's responsibility, not the government's, and if they don't mind being lied to, then that's their business!"
[effect]truth in national news stories is often impossible to tell from fiction
[effect]civil rights increase, cynicism increases
3. "I just had a thought," chimes in @@RANDOMNAME@@, your cousin. "Think about it - going with either option, someone's going to be unhappy. Lots of people will. The government can pacify the people a lot more if it controls the presses. Plus we can rally support for whatever your political ambitions are."
[effect]the national media is chocked full of pro-government propaganda
[stats]civil rights decrease, patriotism increases
Maybe stats should be fine-tuned a bit.
Also, it's only valid for democracies.
The Debate
1. "This is absolute madness!" exclaims @@RANDOMNAME@@, a social justice advocate. "Free presses are a great idea on paper, but look what they lead to! We need to make the news media print the truth! And if the truth isn't clear, they should say so! People deserve to lose jobs and news licenses over false stories, and maybe they should do some hard time while they're at it! There's no excuse for fabricating news stories!"
[effect]reporters frequently lose their jobs over fact-checking errors
[stats]civil rights decrease, cynicism decreases, safety increases, patriotism decreases
2. "How dare anyone try to take away a pillar of free society!" shouts @@RNADOMNAME@@ of the @@NAME@@ Civil Liberties Union. "Presses should stay free; it's the people's responsibility to decide what news sources they trust! Of course the rioters should be punished and the person who wrote the offending story effectively discredited, but that's the people's responsibility, not the government's, and if they don't mind being lied to, then that's their business!"
[effect]truth in national news stories is often impossible to tell from fiction
[effect]civil rights increase, cynicism increases
3. "I just had a thought," chimes in @@RANDOMNAME@@, your cousin. "Think about it - going with either option, someone's going to be unhappy. Lots of people will. The government can pacify the people a lot more if it controls the presses. Plus we can rally support for whatever your political ambitions are."
[effect]the national media is chocked full of pro-government propaganda
[stats]civil rights decrease, patriotism increases
Maybe stats should be fine-tuned a bit.
Also, it's only valid for democracies.