Not everything you read is true, but at least there s a certain amount of checking you can do. You can contact the publisher, for example. And because it takes a lot of time and money to publish and distribute books and newspapers, they are less likely to be fabricated for a lark. Of course, that also means they are more likely to be fabricated to serve the interests of big corporations. But not just because some geek was bored.
Books are a closed city.
The Internet is an open city, the way Henry Miller s Paris of the 1930s was an open city. You can t easily alter books, but anyone can download an electronic file, change it, and send it out to be propagated exponentially under someone else s name. There s no oversight and nearly no accountability. That s why Miss Manners loves cyberspace. The less government there is, the more people rely on manners to facilitate civil interaction.