{"id":5069,"date":"2021-06-18T02:39:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T02:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=5069"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:01","slug":"listen-to-poe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=5069","title":{"rendered":"LISTEN TO POE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;<span style=\"background-color: white;border: 0px;margin: 0px;padding: 0px;vertical-align: baseline\"><span style=\"font-family: arial\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">B<\/span>elieve nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white;border: 0px;margin: 0px;padding: 0px;vertical-align: baseline\"><span style=\"font-family: arial\"><span style=\"font-size: 22px\">It&#8217;s good advice.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">I tend to think of this quote in the context of media and internet content. It is certainly wise to discount most of what one reads and sees and hears online or on the TV. And if not discount, then we should exercise a healthy skepticism at least.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">Imagine the arguments that could be avoided and the outrage we could be spared. There is no doubt our collective blood pressure would drop back into safe ranges.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">But consider the source of the quote above. It was written by Edgar Allan Poe in a short story entitled <i>The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">Published in 1845.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">One hundred and seventy-six years ago!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">Poe was obviously not referencing the internet or cable news.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">&#8220;Mass media&#8221; in his day would have gone no further than newspapers, books and assorted periodicals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">He was obviously talking primarily about personal conversations and gossip and such.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">Obviously it is exaggeration to advise people to believe NOTHING of what they hear and only HALF of what they see.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"background-color: white\">But HOW exaggerated?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.&#8221;\u00a0 It&#8217;s good advice.\u00a0 I tend to think of this quote in the context of media and internet content. It is certainly wise to discount most of what one reads and sees and hears online or on the TV. And if not discount, then we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5070,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069\/revisions\/5070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}