Disinformation in Mass Media

<p>The founding in 1777 of the <i>Journal de Paris</i> France’s first daily and distinctly commercial paper represents an early use of disinformation as a tool for political gain profit and societal division. To attract a large readership and bar competition for C.W. Gluck’s works at the Paris Opéra it launched a prolonged campaign of anonymous lies mockery and defamation against two prominent members of the Académie Française who wished the Opéra to be open to all deserving composers but lacked a comparable daily forum with which to defend themselves. In this unique episode music served as a smokescreen for nefarious activity. No musical knowledge is necessary to follow this purely political drama.</p>