Partisan misinformation flourished during both the French and American revolutions

Evidence

Just before the French Revolution, a number of pamphlets appeared in Paris recounting the near-bankruptcy of the government. These were put out, however, by rival political factions, who used different numbers and blamed different people. Finally, enough information came out that people began to get the true picture, “but, like today, readers had to be both skeptical and skilled to figure out the truth.” During the American Revolution, fake news appeared by both the British and the Americans, including Benjamin Franklin’s pure fiction that some of the “scalping” Indians were working alongside King George. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 197

Categorization

• SEED: Could support an essay on the historical depth of information warfare before its tech-enabled phase — propaganda as a founding condition of modern politics.
• CANDY: Benjamin Franklin planting fake news about King George’s scalp-hunting Indians is a bright, tweetable trivia item.
• XREF: connects to: A fabricated atrocity story shaped European and American opinion of the revolt; The American Revolution conditioned citizens to equate resistance to conspiracy with national identity — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 59

Broader Connections

• The American Revolution conditioned citizens to equate resistance to conspiracy with national identity #expands (0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 59
• A fabricated atrocity story shaped European and American opinion of the revolt #exemplifies (0.75)