Living in a time of misinformation in old-time Phoenix


Something that I very often hear nowadays is how much misinformation is going around, and that it's all because of the internet, and that it never happened before. But as an old Marketing guy, and a history buff, I beg to differ. Time-travel with me.

It's 1893, and this ad in the paper promises that it will cure my lumbago, which is the old-fashioned term for lower back pain. I'm reading this in a respectable and prominent paper in Phoenix, and by golly it sure looks convincing! Latest patents! Best Improvements! Just put the belt on, turn on the electricity, and you're instantly cured. The current is instantly felt by the wear or they will forfeit five million dollars, in 1893 dollars! Wow!

Of course, what happened over the years is that newspapers stopped accepting ads like this, and eventually even Federal laws were created to stop this spread of misinformation. "Truth in advertising" laws weren't, and aren't perfect, but it definitely slowed down the amount of information that would take money from people and at best give them nothing, and at worst harm them. So, of course this information simply moved to a less-regulated place, which still happens today.

I've been on the internet since it began, about twenty years ago, and it was very wide-open for a long time. It's been difficult to regulate misinformation, and trying to create laws to control it has been almost impossible, so it has become a question of integrity of each publisher. I've watched as even Facebook and Twitter have stopped allowing misinformation, in spite of the fact that there's a lot of money to be made on it.

But rest assured that the demand for misinformation is still as high now as it was in 1893. And the people who desperately want to believe that a belt with a battery that gives you a tingle of electricity will cure all of your ailments are still around, still happy to believe this, still happy to buy it.

Well, dag-nab it, my lumbago is starting to act up again! It must be from sitting at this-here "computing machine"! I wonder if Dr. Sanden's Electric Belt is still available. I'll go check the internet, I know I'll find it somewheres!
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