Hearsay

It seems that nearly every bit of information we receive these days is hearsay, or more bluntly, a lie. I think most people do not believe that most things they hear, or read in the news, are out-and-out lies. In fact, a distinction needs to be made between conscious and intentional lies and things that are simply not true. Once we make that distinction, we find that most of what reaches us belongs to the latter category.

That fact changes things only a little bit, but not an awful lot. False information is still false. And the falsity or truth of any information remains the responsibility of the conveyor. If I tell someone something I am not personally certain of, I typically qualify the statement with “I think this is true,” or “this is what I heard,” or “so-and-so said this, not sure if it is true.” Although I must admit that, realistically, I do not say this as often as I should. If I did, I would almost never make an unqualified statement—unless I had literally experienced it: “It is raining outside; I was just out there, and I am soaked.” That’s not hearsay, but if someone I told it to repeated it to someone else, then it would be.