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• 1 2020-02-19T17:31:13+00:00 The Stories 18 plain 2020-02-24T20:12:12+00:00
  The story at right was taken from the New Haven Register, August 21, 1895. It was originally printed at about the same time in the Winsted Evening Citizen. Unknown to readers at the time was that Louis Stone, a young reporter Louis Stone at the Evening Citizen, had fabricated, or greatly embellished the entire story.
  
  The distinguishing aspect of this episode is that in the months that followed the original article's publication, the media and locals collaborated and worked quite hard to validate the original claim. Who or what was this wild man? Was he a threat? Where can he be found? Who will he torment next? 
  
  Regional media reporters flocked to Winsted, interviewing locals, who rewarded them with sensational descriptions. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• 1 2020-02-27T15:53:59+00:00 Follow the Money 12 plain 2020-05-05T13:51:43+00:00 Money is a frequent motivator to generate news that sells, whether the goal is to sell the story itself, or to sell a particular product or idea using the news. 
  
  I. The cigarette industry made millions of dollars by carefully molding an image of smoking as desirable, safe, and even healthy. When their profits were threatened, they made a concerted effort to convince the public that research linking cigarettes to cancer was controversial, when in fact the vast majority of scientists believed the link to be true. 
  
  II. When Arthur Conan Doyle publicly expressed his belief that the Cottingley Fairy photographs were real, he helped lend a legitimacy to the photographs that would last for decades - and bring in money for those who told the story. 
  
  III. The Winsted, Connecticut reporter, Lou Stone, eventually admitted that he spun a tall tale about the Wild Man, in part, to sell newspapers and bring tourist business to Winsted. Stone had an active imagination that was able to write stories with wide public appeal and turn a profit. 
  
  
  
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