It's a good time to be skeptical because governments plant propoganda using social media or friendly press outlets. Certainly, a recent story on RT News, a press organ for Putin and the Russian Government, comes to mind. That story featured suitably large, fake Greek coins that were purportedly being sold by a rebel from the Free Syrian Army to help purchase weapons. Russia, of course, supports Assad, the enemy of the Free Syrian Army, so one should be skeptical about a report that portrays these rebels in a bad light.
And what of the vast sums of money ISIS supposedly makes from the illicit antiquities trade? Even some in the archaeological lobby are rightly skeptical too.
Sam Hardy on the Conflict Antiquities blog writes:-
ReplyDelete"The most (and still) noteworthy feature of the original article was the false information from another source that Paul Barford exposed."
What Hardy expresses proves beyond doubt to my mind at least, that Paul Barford is wholly selective in the 'false information' he chooses to 'expose.'
Barford's widely discredited and ridiculed, Artifact Erosion Counter, is THE prime example of 'false information' currently peddled to the gullible. Without doubt, a case for Trading Standards.
Warm regards
John Howland
England
Yes, it's hard sometimes to know whether Mr. B hates ISIS, collectors, metal detectorists or the US Government more...
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