Re: [BNW] Re: bnw-digest.19991227

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

> >>      Keep something in mind, folks. Truth's not
> >>infallible. And her power likely only works on
> >>people, which means she's vulnerable to print media.
> >>(How ironic is THAT statement?) So, some of her
> >>information may not be 'entirely accurate.'
> >
> >But she is also presumably a competent reporter
>(i.e., >Profession: Reporter at decent skill levels
>and >stuff).  One can (hopefully!) assume that she
> >talks to witnesses, investigates matters for herself,
> >and does reporter-type verification.  Her statements
> >in the section in question are presented as fact.
>Not >"alleged" fact or "best reports indicate that"
>fact.
> >
> >Plus...why would she be inaccurate in this case?
>
>      Perhaps she did. And, it's possible her
>informants were misinformed, probably deliberately, in
>order for DP to maintain a smokescreen. Any Gadgeteer
>that ever worked on an Armorgeddon suit would probably
>pick up on the flaws in that tale. It's quite possibly
>a clue or a lead in to an adventure.

What flaws in the tale?  Matt said that the power-nullification part of the 
story was true (albeit mildly misleading, IMO).  The only smokescreen here 
seems to be Matt's comment of "Consider the source."

>      Despite the best efforts of the best reporter,
>everyone makes a mistake now and then. If her sources
>don't know they're wrong, how can Truth know they're
>wrong?
>

Actually, wasn't Truth present at the execution (page 51)?  Presumably she 
was an eyewitness.  She'd be seeing Deltas in Armorgeddon suits firing 
Blasts or Sonic Screams or whatever, and incoming Deltas without powers.  It 
doesn't take a whole lot of deductive power or additional source to figure 
that DP had some way to ignore the nullification field and the Defiance 
Deltas didn't.

Granted, making such a comment about her presence doesn't seem to 
necessarily be a good way to maintain one's secret ID, but I suppose in this 
case DP might assume it to be a possible cover.  That's the kind of 
misleading that does make sense - she's not lying about DP, or the Defiance, 
but only her own cover story.

> >Well, some spoiler material here, but...
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
> >*
>      It depends on the story DP fed the media. If a
>source within DP 'leaked' multiple stories to various
>reporters or sources they suspect might be linked to
>Truth, it's in her best interest to stick with the
>story they're feeding the majority of the press. So,
>if she gets one story from an interview for her
>newspaper, and another from an 'inside' source, it
>makes more sense to report the mainstream story since
>it makes her harder to track.

Except she's already stated that she was present at the execution (again 
page 51).  Every reporter present presumably was a witness to the events 
(unless they all just shrugged and stayed inside while a firefight went on 
over their heads - don't sound much like reporters I know ;) ). Her story 
would jibe with that of every other reporter present.  I suppose DP might 
keep the reporters inside, but why when the odds are quite favorable that 
what the reporters will see is a event that further demonstrates DP's 
superiority?

Or, if Truth wasn't actually there and her comment that she was present was 
to muddy the waters over her secret ID, then her story would still jibe 
because it was the story the other reporters told and publicly reported.

Granted, if she was lying and said she was present when she wasn't, it would 
seem that her comment put the lives and freedom of the other reporters in 
danger.  But I suppose they're used to that kind of harassment from the 
government...

>      It also conceals any security leaks the Defiance
>has put into DP. Thus, it protects Defiance spies who
>can continue to feed her information that will be
>critical to bringing down Kennedy's regime. Maintaing
>her image as an accurate reporter is useless to the
>Defiance if doing so compromises the safety and
>security of their people within DP and the government.
>As long as DP doesn't know they've got internal leaks,
>Truth can feed the accurate information directly to
>the Defiants who can make the most use of it. It has
>the added bonus of giving DP a false sense of
>security.
>

Again, what internal sources?  The battle was apparently a public fight in 
front of reporters (whether she herself was there or not).  Who does she 
compromise by repeating a story concerning public event that was verified by 
multiple witnesses and features obvious conclusions?

*shrug* The "source" here to be considered are apparently reporter 
eyewitnesses, of which Truth may or may not herself have been among them.  
It may indeed be a clue or story hook, I suppose (only time will tell), but 
it doesn't seem a very useful one based on what we've been told to date. The 
whole story hasn't been told as far as what power-nullification entails 
(thus in part my original question concerning the events that occurred).  
It's hard to tell:  do Gadgeteers need a prototype before building something 
new?  Nothing in the (at this point abbreviated) Gadget rules indicates this 
is the case, so there seems no reason to have a story hook leading in to an 
adventure to, say, steal one of these prototype suits.  It's also not really 
played up as a clue per se, but rather as an incidental moment in the 
overall execution.

(There's another interesting question - what happens to a Teleporter outside 
of a null-field who tries to teleport into such a field?)

Regardless, if this level of smokescreening is the case, one can only hope 
that we have a different narrator in future books (which would seem to be 
the case - is Truth going to narrate the Primer SB?  I don't think so..., 
and was partially the case with Patriot in Ravaged Planet).  If you can't 
trust Truth's recounting of anything beyond the most obvious because she may 
always have an ulterior motive in concealing her sources, then she's useless 
to us, the readers, as a "viewpoint" into the BNW universe.

>=====
>John Higginbotham
>Phoenix, Arizona, USA
>cloudshaper2k@yahoo.com
>jahiggin@starlink.com


---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/

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