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When the Brutal Truth is a Kindness

Date: October 26, 2001
Author: Prof. Ben H. Bagdikian
QUOTE: when the anthrax scare first attracted Congress....Secretary Thompson's mistake was more serious. When there is a serious public concern with a possible danger, the worst possible official response is to offer false reassurances.

ABSTRACT: Media critic Bagdikian argues that HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson's blanket reassurances about the government's readiness for biowarfare, and the government's request that the bin Laden tapes not be broadcast, were a major disservice to the American people. He revisits a classic social psychology paper about the value of solid information as an antidote to rumor, panic, mistrust, and racial/ethnic paranoia.

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