Pierre Salinger syndrome
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The Pierre Salinger syndrome refers to the tendency of people to believe anything posted on the Internet. It is named for Pierre Salinger who was the White House press secretary under President John F. Kennedy and an ABC News journalist from 1978 to 1993. The term is widely attributed to Moira Gunn, who said in a Wired magazine interview (July 1997), "Just because it's online doesn't make it true. We're heading toward something called the Pierre Salinger syndrome, which is endemic to people who have not hung around the new technology and are fooled by its shortfalls."
On July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 crashed. On November 8 of that year, Salinger announced he had a government document given to him by a French intelligence source stating that friendly fire from the US Navy had been the cause of the crash. Then it came to light that the document was not from the government but was authored by Captain Richard Russell, a retired 747 pilot and former crash investigator. Russell recently filed an affidavit in a FOIA suit (by Lahr, et al) saying he stands by the contents of his report. Because Pierre Salinger zealously believed his information was accurate, but was unwilling to publicly expose his sources, some people charged that he believed it was true simply because it was posted on the Internet.
External links
- First CNN report (http://www.cnn.com/US/9611/09/twa.salinger/) on November 9, 1996
- CNN cites Richard Russell (http://www.cnn.com/US/9703/13/twa/) on March 13, 1997
- Moira Gunn on the Pierre Salinger Syndrome (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.07/gunn.html)
- Affidavit of Richard Russell in Lahr vs NTSB (http://www.twa800.com/lahr/affidavits/m-richard-russell.pdf)
- Pierre Salinger Claims Navy Missile Shot Down TWA Flight 800 (http://www.welfarestate.com/twa800/pierre.htm)
- Debunking The Myth About Pierre Salinger (links to media reports on Russell) (http://users.erols.com/igoddard/salinger.htm)
- a controversional link to the story (http://www.webcom.com/~lpease/collections/mass/twa800.htm)