The truth may set you free but it doesn’t mean anyone else is going to believe you. At least that seems to be the way the world works these days. We are a people of skepticism and suspicion. We thrive on it, heck the entire internet is practically built on rumor and innuendo. In modern tabloid journalism a rumor and one anonymous source is all that stands between a publication and a viral click.

Recently a devastating storm slammed into Guatemala, causing some fatalities and extensive damage – including a rather impressive sink hole. When pictures surfaced of the sink hole folks left comments both at the Huffington Post and CNN.com calling the photo a fake and decrying it as a “photoshop” job. Never mind that the sink hole is in fact real but it’s 2010 and a picture is no longer worth a thousand words nor proof of anything. The first casualty of this new era of media technology is belief.

When Brittany Murphy died people refused to believe that her death wasn’t caused by drugs but rather a bad case of pneumonia. Heck the Huffington Post turned their entertainment page that day into an all out assault on Murphy’s credibility, confirming that they are at times nothing more than a tabloid extension of TMZ. Never mind that the investigation was still under way and never mind that her family and fans were no doubt still mourning.

And the list goes on. When Brett Michaels was hospitalized after his brain hemorrhage some chose to not believe it and insisted that he was just doing a PR stunt. When the Apollo mission landed on the moon rumors of a sound stage cover up flourished. Heck some even thought 9/11 was staged and the planes fake – despite that many saw it happen before their very eyes.

And for some Elvis is still alive.

It’s happened to me. I was covering some LaRouche volunteers as they were hanging out on a street corner in Toluca Lake, CA denouncing President Obama when a woman came by and tore down their anti-Obama sign and took their cell phone/camera. The ensuing verbal altercation and short bit of action as the lady expressed how angry she was with their depiction of Obama as Hitler was caught on my camera. After editing the piece just to clean it up and putting it up on CNN.com – some viewers posted that I had staged the entire event. I didn’t of course but that didn’t ease their suspicions.

And of course then there’s the case of President Obama – not only do some people not believe he was born in the U.S. (despite ample proof), they also think he’s a Muslim and that Acorn stole the election – even though none of that is true.

Mind you those same people believe James O’Keefe when he staged meetings with Acorn by editing the footage to make it seem like they were taking him seriously in his attempts to get help for his “prostitution business”.

So what does it take to tell the truth and have it believed? Here at the AVJ we’re all about finding the truth through understanding but what happens when people just simply don’t want to believe truth – how do you ever find understanding ?

Is there any hope anymore for the truth?