Errol Morris on Truth

Renowned filmmaker Errol Morris (The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line) has some fascinating observations about fiction versus nonfiction (as well as varying ways of presenting nonfiction in documentary films) in the April issue of The Believer:

Does style guarantee truth? Does printing something in the New York Times guarantee its truth? Because it appears in a certain paper in a certain font, a certain look, can we just say that because of that fact, it's true? A lot of people do think that way. It's interesting that the New York Times has had a font facelift. It's now all Cheltenham. All the time. No more Latin Extra Condensed. No more Century Bold Italic. Just Cheltenham. Maybe people were worried. I'm not sure about what. But maybe they were worried. Maybe the mixture of fonts looked less truthful.

The use of Cheltenham in the New York Times doesn't guarantee the truthfulness of the reporting. Presumably, Jayson Blair also used Cheltenham. By the way, I also have a theory about why the National Enquirer is more reliable than the New York Times:

Elizabeth Taylor can sue; the Kurds can't.