M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin

and the reader, who is deceived more, brings more nickels to the newspaperman. And drinking, and take-away - every newspaper guy makes a penny!

“There were no pants! - envious people say about him, - and now, look how he trumps! Hired a flatterer! I started a storyteller from folk life! Blissful!”

Whether for a long time or for a short time things went on like this, but there were good people who took pity on the gullible reader. They called in the deceiving newspaperman and told him: “It will be done with you, shameless and unfaithful man! Until now you have been trading in deception, but from now on - trade in the truth!”

Yes, by the way, the readers began to sober up a little and began sending tsidulki to the newspaperman. Today, they say, I was walking along Nevsky with my daughter, thinking about spending the night at Sezzhaya (my daughter even stocked up on sandwiches, just in case, - she said: “Oh, how fun it will be!”), But instead, both returned home safely... Because How about reconciling such a comforting fact with your editorials about our insecurity?

Naturally, the newspaperman, for his part, was just waiting for this. Frankly speaking, he himself was tired of deceiving. His heart had long been inclined towards the truth, but what can you do if the reader only falls for deception! You cry and you deceive. Now, when they are pestering him from all sides with a knife to his throat to tell him the truth, well, he is ready! The truth, so the truth, damn it! He made two stone houses by deception, but the remaining two stone houses have to be made by the truth!

And he began to pester the reader every day with the truth! No diphtheria, and no Sabbath! And there are no prisons, and there are no fires; Even if Konotop burned out, after the fire it was built even better. And the harvest, thanks to the warm rains, turned out to be such that they themselves ate and ate, and finally they began to throw them under the table for the Germans: choke!

more animated. Because if you start to closely dissolve the goodness of the air, the picture that will come out is that you give everything, and even little!

Finally, the reader finally sobered up and regained his sight. And before, life was not bad for him when he accepted deception as truth, but now his heart was completely relieved. He goes into a bakery - there they tell him: “Of course, over time, bread will be cheaper!”, He looks into a chicken shop - there they tell him: “Of course, in time, hazel grouse will not matter at all!”

Well, how's it going so far?

As long as one ruble and twenty kopecks per pair!

What a turnaround, with God's help!

And then, one day, a gullible reader came out into the street like a dandy. He walks, “in the hope of glory and goodness,” and waves his cane: know, they say, that from now on I am completely provided for!

But this time, as luck would have it, the following happened:

Before he could take a few steps, a legal error occurred and he was put in jail.

He sat there all day without eating. Because even though he was treated to food, he looked and looked, but only said: “Here they are, our harvests, what are they!”

There he contracted diphtheria.

Of course, the next day the legal error was explained, and he was released on bail (this is not an equal case, and it will be needed again). He returned home and died.

And the deceiving newspaperman is still alive. He brings the fourth stone house under the roof and from morning to evening he thinks about one thing: what is better for him to deceive the gullible reader: with deception or with the truth?

Once upon a time there was a newspaperman, and there was a reader. The newspaperman was a deceiver - he deceived everything, but the reader was gullible - he believed everything. This is how it has been in the world since ancient times: deceivers deceive, and the gullible believe. Suum cuique.

The newspaperman sits in his den and knows how to deceive and deceive. “Beware! - he says, “diphtheria is killing the townsfolk!” “There has been no rain,” he says, “from the very beginning of spring - look, we’ll be left without bread!” “Fires are destroying villages and cities!” “They are dragging state and public goods apart!” And the reader reads and thinks that the newspaperman opens his eyes. “Such, he says, we have freedom of printing: wherever you look, there is either diphtheria, or a fire, or a crop failure”...

Further more. The newspaperman realized that his deceptions were to the heart of the reader - he began to give in even more. “We don’t have any security,” he says! “Don’t go out,” the reader says, “on the street: you’ll just end up in jail!” And the gullible reader walks like a gogol down the street and says: “Oh, how correctly the newspaperman expressed himself about our insecurity!” Not only that: he will meet another gullible reader and ask: “Did you read how wonderfully the newspaperman pulled it off today about our insecurity?” - “How not to read! - another gullible reader will note, - incomparable! You can’t, you can’t just walk through our streets - now you’ll end up in jail!”

And everyone can’t boast enough about the freedom of printing. “We didn’t know that we had diphtheria everywhere,” gullible readers sing in unison, “but here it is!” And because of this confidence, their souls became so easy that if this same newspaperman had now told him that he had diphtheria, but it was all gone, perhaps they would have stopped reading his newspaper.

And the newspaperman is happy about this, because for him deception is a direct benefit. Not everyone gets the truth - go get it! - you probably won’t be able to pay ten kopecks off the line for it! Is it a deception? Know, write and deceive. Five kopecks from a line - whole heaps of deceptions will be inflicted on you from all sides!

And the newspaperman developed such a friendship with the reader that you couldn’t spill them with water. The more a newspaperman deceives, the more he gets rich (and what else does a deceiver want!); and the reader, if he is deceived more, then brings more nickels to the newspaperman. And drinking, and take-away - every newspaper guy makes a penny!

“There were no pants! - envious people say about him, - and now, look how he trumps! Hired a flatterer! I started a storyteller from folk life! Blissful!”

The darkness of low truths is dearer to me
A deception that exalts us...

Yes, by the way, the readers began to sober up a little and began sending tsidulki to the newspaperman. Today, they say, I was walking along Nevsky with my daughter, thinking about spending the night at Sezhaya (my daughter even stocked up on sandwiches, just in case, and said: “Oh, how fun it will be!”), But instead, both returned home safely... So how, they say, should such a comforting fact be reconciled with your editorials about our insecurity?

Naturally, the newspaperman, for his part, was just waiting for this. Frankly speaking, he himself was tired of deceiving. His heart had long been inclined towards the truth, but what can you do if the reader only falls for deception! You cry and you deceive. Now, when they are pestering him from all sides with a knife to his throat to tell him the truth, well, he is ready! The truth, the truth, damn it! He made two stone houses by deception, but the remaining two stone houses have to be made by the truth!

But what’s most remarkable is that the newspaperman prints only the truth, and only pays five kopecks per line. And the price of truth has fallen since they began to sell it in drinking alcohol. It turns out that the truth, that deception, is worth nothing. And the newspaper columns not only did not become more boring because of this, but became even more lively. Because if you start to closely dissolve the goodness of the air, the picture that will come out is that you give everything, and even little!

Finally, the reader finally sobered up and regained his sight. And before, life was not bad for him when he accepted deception as truth, but now his heart was completely relieved. If he goes into a bakery, they tell him: “In time, bread will be cheap!”; he goes into a chicken shop, and they tell him: “Of course, in time, hazel grouse will be of no use!”

Well, how's it going so far?

As long as one ruble and twenty kopecks per pair!

What a turnaround, with God's help!

But this time, as luck would have it, the following happened:

Before he could take a few steps, a legal error occurred and he was put in jail.

He sat there all day without eating. Because even though he was treated to food, he looked and looked, but only said: “Here they are, our harvests, what are they!”

There he contracted diphtheria.

Of course, the next day the legal error was explained, and he was released on bail (this is not an equal case, and it will be needed again). He returned home and died.

And the deceiving newspaperman is still alive. The fourth stone house is under the roof and from morning to evening he thinks about one thing: what is better for him to deceive the gullible reader: with deception or with the truth?

Suum cuique- To each his own (lat.)- from Cicero’s treatise “On Duties” and his book “Tusculan Conversations”.
Both drinking and takeaway.- This expression, when applied to the press, denoting the unscrupulousness and corruption of its figures, was used by Lenin in the article “Career” (1912) when characterizing Suvorin’s “New Time”.
The darkness of low truths is dearer to me...- From “Hero” by Pushkin.
“...in the hope of glory and goodness”...- From Pushkin's Stanzas.

There is nothing new under the sun. Here comes M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote this wonderful story about the problems of lies in the media and the naivety of readers back in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The newspaperman sits in his den and knows how to deceive and deceive. “Beware! - he says, “diphtheria is killing the townsfolk!” “There has been no rain,” he says, “from the very beginning of spring - look, we’ll be left without bread!” “Fires are destroying villages and cities!” “They are dragging government and public goods apart!” And the reader reads and thinks that the newspaperman opens his eyes. “Such, he says, we have freedom of printing: wherever you look, there is either diphtheria, or a fire, or a crop failure.”

Further more. The newspaperman realized that his deceptions were to the heart of the reader - he began to give in even more. “We don’t have any security,” he says! “Don’t go out,” the reader says, “on the street: you’ll just end up in jail!” And the gullible reader walks like a gogol down the street and says: “Oh, how correctly the newspaperman expressed himself about our insecurity!” Not only that: he will meet another gullible reader and ask: “Have you read how wonderfully the newspaperman talked about our insecurity today?” - “How not to read! - another gullible reader will note, - incomparable! You can’t, you can’t just walk through our streets - now you’ll end up in jail!”

And the newspaperman is happy about this, because for him deception is a direct benefit. Not everyone gets the truth - go get it! - you probably won’t be able to pay ten kopecks off the line for it! Is it a deception? Know, write and deceive. Five kopecks per line - whole heaps of deceptions will be inflicted on you from all sides!

And the reader, who is deceived more, brings more nickels to the newspaperman. And drinking, and take-away - every newspaper guy makes a penny!
“Both drinking and takeaway.” — This expression, when applied to the press, denoting the unscrupulousness and corruption of its figures, was used by Lenin in the article “Career” (1912) when characterizing Suvorin’s “New Time”.

“There were no pants! - envious people say about him, - and now, look how he trumps! Hired a flatterer! I started a storyteller from folk life! Blissful!”

Other newspapermen tried to bait him with the truth - maybe, they say, the subscriber will run to our bait - so where are you going! The reader doesn’t want to know anything, he just repeats one thing:
The darkness of low truths is dearer to me
A deception that exalts us...
The darkness of low truths is dearer to me... - From Pushkin’s “Hero”.

Yes, by the way, the readers began to sober up a little and began sending tsidulki to the newspaperman. Today, they say, I was walking along Nevsky with my daughter, thinking about spending the night at Sezhaya (my daughter even stocked up on sandwiches, just in case, and said: “Oh, how fun it will be!”), But instead, both returned home safely... Because How about reconciling such a comforting fact with your editorials about our insecurity?

But what’s most remarkable is that the newspaper publishes only the truth, and only pays five kopecks per line. And the price of truth has fallen since they began to sell it in drinking alcohol. It turns out that the truth, that deception is worth nothing. And the newspaper columns not only did not become more boring because of this, but became even more lively. Because if you start to thoroughly dissolve the goodness of the air, the picture that will come out is that you give everything, and even not enough!

Finally, the reader finally sobered up and regained his sight. And before, life was not bad for him when he accepted deception as truth, but now his heart was completely relieved. He’ll go into a bakery and they’ll tell him: “In time, bread will be cheaper!”; he’ll look into a chicken shop and they’ll tell him: “Over time, hazel grouse won’t matter at all!”

- Well, how’s it going so far?
- As long as one ruble and twenty kopecks per pair!
What a turnaround, with God's help!

But this time, as luck would have it, the following happened:
Before he could take a few steps, a legal error occurred and he was put in jail.

He sat there all day without eating. Because even though he was treated to food, he looked and looked, but only said: “Here they are, our harvests, what are they!”

There he contracted diphtheria.

Of course, the next day the legal error was explained, and he was released on bail (this is not an equal case, and it will be needed again). He returned home and died.

The newspaperman sits in his den and knows how to deceive and deceive. “Beware!” he says, “diphtheria is killing the townsfolk!” “There has been no rain,” he says, “from the very beginning of spring - look, we’ll be left without bread!” "Fires are destroying villages and cities!" “Government and public goods are being dragged apart!” And the reader reads and thinks that the newspaperman opens his eyes. “Such, he says, we have freedom of printing: wherever you look, there is either diphtheria, or a fire, or a crop failure”...

Further more. The newspaperman realized that his deceptions were to the heart of the reader - he began to give in even more. “We don’t have any security,” he says! “Don’t go out,” the reader says, “you’ll just end up in jail!” And the gullible reader walks like a gogol down the street and says: “Oh, how correctly the newspaperman expressed himself about our insecurity!” Not only that: he will meet another gullible reader and ask: “Have you read how wonderfully the newspaperman talked about our insecurity today?” - “How can you not read it!” another gullible reader will answer, “incomparable! You can’t, you can’t, walk down our streets - now you’ll end up in jail!”

And everyone can’t boast enough about the freedom of printing. “We didn’t know that we had diphtheria everywhere,” gullible readers sing in unison, “but that’s what it is!” And because of this confidence, their souls became so easy that if this same newspaperman had now told him that he had diphtheria, but it was all gone, perhaps they would have stopped reading his newspaper.

And the newspaperman developed such a friendship with the reader that you couldn’t spill them with water. The more a newspaperman deceives, the more he gets rich (and what else does a deceiver want!); and the reader, who is deceived more, brings more nickels to the newspaperman. And drinking, and take-away - every newspaper guy makes a penny!

“There weren’t any pants!” envious people say about him, “and now, look how he trumps! He hired himself a flatterer! He started a storyteller from the people’s life! He’s blissful!”

The darkness of low truths is dearer to me

A deception that exalts us...

Whether for a long time or for a short time things went on like this, but there were good people who took pity on the gullible reader. They called in the deceiving newspaperman and said to him: “It will be done with you, shameless and unfaithful man! Until now you have been trading in deception, but from now on - trade in the truth!”

Yes, by the way, the readers began to sober up a little and began sending tsidulki to the newspaperman. Today, they say, I was walking along Nevsky with my daughter, thinking about spending the night at Sezhaya (my daughter even stocked up on sandwiches, just in case, - she said: “Oh, how fun it will be!”), But instead, both returned home safely... Because How about reconciling such a comforting fact with your editorials about our insecurity?

But what’s most remarkable is that the newspaperman prints only the truth, and only pays five kopecks per line. And the price of truth has fallen since they began to sell it in drinking alcohol. It turns out that the truth, that deception is worth nothing. And the newspaper columns not only did not become more boring because of this, but became even more lively. Because if you start to closely dissolve the goodness of the air, the picture that will come out is that you give everything, and even little!

Finally, the reader finally sobered up and regained his sight. And before, life was not bad for him when he accepted deception as truth, but now his heart was completely relieved. If he goes into a bakery, they tell him: “In time, bread will be cheaper!”; he goes into a chicken shop, and they tell him: “Of course, in time, hazel grouse won’t matter at all!”

Well, how's it going so far?

As long as one ruble and twenty kopecks per pair! What a turnaround, with God's help!

But this time, as luck would have it, the following happened:

Before he could take a few steps, a legal error occurred and he was put in jail.

He sat there all day without eating. Because even though he was treated to food, he looked and looked, but only said: “Here they are, our harvests, what are they!”

There he contracted diphtheria.

Of course, the next day the legal error was explained, and he was released on bail (this is not an equal case, and it will be needed again). He returned home and died.

Listen to a fairy tale

The newspaperman sits in his den and knows how to deceive and deceive. “Beware!” he says, “diphtheria is killing the townsfolk!” “There has been no rain,” he says, “from the very beginning of spring - look, we’ll be left without bread!” "Fires are destroying villages and cities!" “Government and public goods are being dragged apart!” And the reader reads and thinks that the newspaperman opens his eyes. “Such,” he says, “we have freedom of printing: wherever you look, there is either diphtheria, or a fire, or a crop failure”...

Further more. The newspaperman realized that his deceptions were to the heart of the reader - he began to give in even more. “We don’t have any security,” he says! “Don’t go out,” the reader says, “you’ll just end up in jail!” And the gullible reader walks like a gogol down the street and says: “Oh, how correctly the newspaperman expressed himself about our insecurity!” Not only that: he will meet another gullible reader and ask: “Have you read how wonderfully the newspaperman talked about our insecurity today?” - “How can you not read it!” another gullible reader will answer, “incomparable! You can’t, you can’t, walk through our streets - now you’ll end up in jail!”

And the newspaperman is happy about this, because for him deception is a direct benefit. Not everyone gets the truth - go get it! — you probably won’t be able to pay ten kopecks off the line for it! Is it a deception? Know, write and deceive. Five kopecks from a line - whole heaps of deceptions will be inflicted on you from all sides!

And the newspaperman developed such a friendship with the reader that you couldn’t spill them with water. The more a newspaperman deceives, the more he gets rich (and what else does a deceiver want!); and the reader, who is deceived more, brings more nickels to the newspaperman. And drinking, and takeaway - every newspaper guy makes a penny!

“There weren’t any pants!” envious people say about him, “and now, look how he trumps! He hired himself a flatterer! He started a storyteller from the people’s life! He’s blissful!”

The darkness of low truths is dearer to me

A deception that exalts us...

Whether things went on like this for a long time or for a short time, there were only kind people who took pity on the gullible reader. They called in the deceiving newspaperman and said to him: “It will be done with you, shameless and unfaithful man! Until now you have been trading in deception, but from now on - trade in the truth!”

Yes, by the way, the readers began to sober up a little and began sending tsidulki to the newspaperman. Today, they say, I was walking along Nevsky with my daughter, thinking about spending the night at Sezzhaya (my daughter even stocked up on sandwiches, just in case, - she said: “Oh, how fun it will be!”), But instead, both returned home safely... So How, they say, can such a comforting fact be reconciled with your editorials about our insecurity?

But what’s most remarkable is that the newspaper publishes only the truth, and only pays five kopecks per line. And the price of truth has fallen since they began to sell it in drinking alcohol. It turns out that the truth and deception are worthless. And the newspaper columns not only did not become more boring because of this, but became even more lively. Because if you start to thoroughly dissolve the goodness of the air, the picture that will come out is that you give everything, and even little!

Finally, the reader finally sobered up and regained his sight. And before, life was not bad for him when he accepted deception as truth, but now his heart was completely relieved. He’ll go into a bakery and they’ll tell him: “Over time, bread will be cheaper!”; he’ll look into a chicken shop and they’ll tell him, “Over time, hazel grouse won’t matter at all!”

Well, how's it going so far?

As long as one ruble and twenty kopecks per pair! What a turnaround, with God's help!

But this time, as luck would have it, the following happened:

Before he could take a few steps, a legal error occurred and he was put in jail.

He sat there all day without eating. Because even though he was treated to food, he looked and looked, but only said: “Here they are, our harvests, what are they!”

There he contracted diphtheria.

Of course, the next day the legal error was explained, and he was released on bail (this is not an equal case, and it will be needed again). He returned home and died.