Tackling the monster of ‘disinformation’

Tony Seed and Gary Zatzman are trying to provide a counter to what they see as profit-motivated, elite-driven lies in the mainstream media

By GENEVIEVE PERREAULT, King’s Journalism Review, October 14, 2004

Gary Zatzman: “[Disinformation] has been the 800-pound gorilla in the room for a very long time.”

Early in his career, Gary Zatzman realized that as a journalist, he was not expected to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. His job was to discover only what suited his editors’ agenda – and that meant perpetuating “disinformation” created by a small group of society’s elite.

In the 1970s, while working for a New Brunswick daily, Zatzman researched an Indian and Northern Affairs housing program. The program set aside funds for registered First Nations band members who were not living on reserves. The final tone in his articles, he says, was positive: he wrote that although certain tensions existed, the recipients were generally satisfied with the program.