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<DIV>In a message dated 11/9/2008, Larry.Levine@stevens.edu writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>>>That author's brother, R' Mordkhai
Schwab, however, had a negative view of "story tell-when he told me, "The
Satmarer Rav, R' Yoilish </FONT>Teitelbaum, never told 'stories ' because he
said, 'You can<FONT face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>not educate through lies
</FONT><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>[shekar].''' </FONT><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>R' Mordkhai agreed with R' Yoilish in reference
to stories intended to glorify their principals while dehumanizing them.
<<<BR></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>>>>><BR>My understanding of what the SR said was not,
"Tell the truth, warts and all" but "DON'T make up stories that never happened
or add embellishments to make the mofes greater."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There's a story going around the internet right now about an Iranian ship
loaded with radioactive sand that was supposed to be blown up off the coast of
Israel, so the sand would blow all over Israel, and miraculously the ship was
boarded by Somalian pirates who started dying in droves, thus the plot was
uncovered and the Israelis were saved and this all happened on Yom Kippur!
Amazing story! Radioactive sand! What a load!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Somebody thought that this story would inspire people but there is no
justification to disseminate sheker. If you want to write an inspiring
work of fiction it must be clearly labeled as fiction.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Where the gray area comes in is when you write a true story about somebody
but you leave out everything that can be construed as negative. At what
point do the omissions themselves so alter the story that it is no longer
"truth"? There's no clear one-size-fits-all answer to this question.
BTW we just enjoyed an amazing election campaign in which the press demonstrated
that it /can/ ignore and omit all negatives when it wants to and that "Dan
lekaf zechus -- no matter what!" /can/ be a working principle of the working
press. Some issues really are black and white.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR></B><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============<BR><BR></B><BR></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="50d6d078b858ca383a06d0a7fc0fa523"><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">AOL Search: Your one stop for directions, recipes and all other Holiday needs. <a href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212792382x1200798498/aol?redir=http://searchblog.aol.com/2008/11/04/happy-holidays-from-aol-search/?ncid=emlcntussear00000001
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