The War on Truth

The war on truth that dominates our era is seen most clearly in the killing of journalists

This is a photograph of Marie Colvin in Egypt. Ivor Prickett took the photograph. Colvin is a war correspondent who lost her eye covering an uprising in Sri Lanka and in Syria documenting the civilian cost of war, she was targeted as a truth-teller and killed. She was a friend and colleague of Janine di Giovanni who is also a war correspondent who knows the risks, but puts her life on the line for the truth.

Gaslit Brain strives to protect the value of the truth

My publicist for The Gaslit Brain titles his introduction of the book as “World War Truth.” The publisher and senior editor who pitched the book were well aware that it was provocative, and would be for some, controversial. Lying with impunity is normalized in our era.

Many steer clear of a book that dissects pathological liars and specifically the ones who fault others for their crimes. I’ve had one podcaster, where after a discussion of those who lie, manipulate reality, seek to destroy the truth and those who tell it, simply bow out and cancel our discussion.

Whistleblowers’ around the world suffer in appalling ways because telling the truth often comes with severe punishment. Yet it is the journalists who risk their lives and die trying to get the facts to the world who make my heart sink. How is that allowed? How is that not the most glaring sign that we are not winning the war on truth?

Journalists should be protected

Journalists should have special protection. They should be untouchable when they wear their vest that states “PRESS.” Instead, they are being targeted in numbers we have never seen before. As noted in The Guardian: “Reporters Without Borders says 2025 was the deadliest year ever for reporters. ‘Journalists do not just die. They are killed. This is where hate and impunity lie.’”

Janine di Giovanni, war correspondent, as well as executive director of The Reckoning Project, and author of The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria, she notes that when journalists are killed in Israel, a special unit gaslights international media into believing they were tied to Hamas, even when they had no ties.

Why is gaslighting not criminal?

Gaslighting should be criminal. Just like murdering a journalist should be criminal. Di Giovanni provides a compelling argument for why gaslighting is a crime. The focus of her article is the murder of her colleague, journalist Marie Colvin.

“Marie Colvin died because she was in the heart of the battle acting as a witness. All of us in this space should look back at her death as a reminder of how urgent it is to preserve the truth. When borders are closed, disinformation thrives. Narratives are manufactured and twisted.”

Gaslighting manufactures narratives, stories that tell you a journalist is actually a terrorist so you don’t register that their murder by a government’s military was specifically to silence the truth. That is a twisted narrative.

As di Giovanni states about journalists being barred from access to war zones: “When there are no witnesses, lies can too often dictate reality.” That is an apt definition of gaslighting in our time: when lies dictate reality.

Do you hear the echo of “dictator” in that definition? What is the impact of gaslighting with impunity by those in power who seek absolute power? Listen to di Giovanni.

“When we don’t have access, the public is forced to choose sides. They join tribes rather than understand facts. Polarisation then divides society. We know what happens next.”

What happens next is the dictator’s abuse playbook which is used personally, professionally, and politically: divide and conquer. We must not fall for this old and highly destructive trick. Stop looking at the “enemy” dictated by the one who hungers for power. Instead, do not take your eyes off the wannabe or established authoritarian.

Authoritarians are authors of lies. They destroy the truth, people, and the planet.