Being a dedicated conspiracy theorist , I am always wary that the government may try to change our opinions by altering the news (“he who controls the past controls the future”). I would assert that a modern example of this followed the crash of TWA flight 800 in the 1990’s. Many news reports at the time referenced numerous, eyewitnesses who reported what looked like a ground, based missle streaking towards the doomed plane. However, subsequent reports barely mentioned these witnesses.
Is there anyplace that maintains a “hard copy” of the daily news as it is reported that is availible online?
If you’re ONLY looking for online news, I’m not sure how to help you. Libraries, of course, carry newspapers back to a certain point (for the past six months? year?) and further back on microfilm, usually…
Why would you trust an online source? It could have been changed.
CNN keeps very far back archives on their site. Here is their original story on Flight 800. You have to keep in mind that 1996 is forever ago in Internet time.
Newspapers at the library are your best bet on this. Or Lexis-Nexis.
It is well-known that newspapers in local landfills can remain readable for many years. If you feel as though you must examine the original source material, it’s out there waiting for you.
I expect that first reports (if my hypothesis is correct) are more honest, and less subject to overt manipulation or subtle spin. However, any first report will also by its very nature be less accurate. Another example that comes to mind was an LAX incident involving an Islamic man, and the Israeli ticket booth. The use of the word terrorism was avoided at all costs. Also, almost the same day that the WTC towers were struck I seem to remember a causeway collasping due to being struck by a barge. I was never able to find much in the way of followup reportinp.
I’m not going to go to a great deal of trouble to check my theories (I am a lazy conspiracy theorist). In fact even if an “Orwellian” society was proven to be imminent, I probably wouldn’t live my life any differently. As usual I am open to almost everything, but am convinced of almost nothing.
I don’t see how an archive would help overcome this - wouldn’t they just change the archive entry to match whatever the ‘updated’ truth was? (As they do in Orwell’s 1984 to which you allude)
Several posters have mentioned microfilm collections of newspapers. There are several online sources that offer digitized versions of these newspapers. ProQuest has the NY Times back to 1851, and papers like the Washington Post, LA Times, and Chicago Tribune back into the 19th century.
PaperOfRecord.com is another similar service, whose holdings include the compelte run of the Sporting News.