Speaking Truth Through Fiction

Sep 18, 2024

Why TV Shows are the New Town Square

“What is the cost of lies? It’s not that we’ll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all. What can we do then? What else is left but to abandon even the hope of truth, and content ourselves instead… with stories.” Chernobyl, Episode One by Craig Mazin

In Chernobyl, Craig Mazin’s political commentary about the Soviet Union in the 1980s also holds an uncomfortable mirror to America today. The shattered reflection we see looking back is filled with stories that have replaced truth.

Today these stories are told in partisan corners of the Internet, on Chinese-owned TikTok, on YouTube, on podcasts. Listeners are not interested in truth based on facts or reality, just a story that reinforces their views, their values, their need for the world to be as they think it should.

What happens if Americans don’t accept and work from a shared common base of facts, reality, and truth? This is the experiment being run today — against our older population on cable television and Facebook, and against our younger generation getting their “news” from TikTok and Instagram Reels.

Foreign and domestic influence campaigns have used social media to drive these divisions in American society to undermine our institutions and media. By calling our media “fake news,” they have convinced Americans that there is no real truth, no facts, no reality — just spin and partisan takes.

If we cannot convince America there is a common truth based on fact and reality, then we can speak truth through fiction in the one common town square we have left — TV shows. Everyone may not watch the nightly news, but we still watch Netflix, HBO, Prime Video and other streaming services or channels where great stories command our common attention. These stories have the power to shape our world views and build the shared fabric of our culture.

Published in The Startup, on Medium.com