I’m sitting here watching “Flags of Our Fathers” . The movie is based on a true story about the famous photograph of the flag being raised on Iwo Jima and the stories about the men involved.

“Flags of Our Fathers follows James Bradley’s book, telling the story of what happened to the three men who were used – and it would be fair to say abused – in a publicity campaign in which all those intimately involved understood to be based on a misleading photograph. The film also shows how the men were treated like movie stars only to be discarded and ignored after they’d served their purpose.”

I am wondering if the way that history is recorded will be forever changed by the capability we now have to transmit information as it happens. All the secrets surrounding John Kennedy ‘s assassination for example, email and blog posts and pictures taken with camera phones would have been flying over the internet faster than you can spell cover-up.  Instead of the media controlling information, people everywhere have become the media.  History will always be skewed by the viewpoint of the teller but I find it somewhat comforting to know that in many situations there will be more than one “teller” and that gives us more of a chance of piecing together an accurate sense of events.

Unfortunately the same connectivity makes it possible that if the American flag were being raised on Iwo Jima today, there would be pieces of it for sale on Ebay tomorrow.  If information is so freely and easily accessible does it retain it’s value?