New is the new old. And nothing new gets old faster than news.
Franco, Hitler, Roosevelt, Von Rundstedt ... All of them were in this evening paper - "Het Nieuws van den Dag" (The News of the Day) dating from December 19, 1940 -. None of them is forgotten, but, by god, they are old news now ...
I will never forget the day I was teaching and one of the 6th grade boys asked me, in complete seriousness, "Was Hitler a boy or a girl?" Such a strange thing to realize what a different world the new generation is growing up in...but also how much the same it is. Great photo and musings on old and new.
Thanks, Bethany. I'm not sure though if it's such a different world. 6th grade boys are just more interested in girls than in dead guys (and they are right to) 
Another good one and a good commentary!
Thanks, Camellia
Nicely written text! What’s more concerning is the rise and spread of “fake news” Now how do you happen to have such an old newspaper?
What is even scarier is all the people who fall for the fake news. It really does take just a few minutes to invalidate fake news and yet so few people take the time.
Look, belief in the "real" press, the "real" news in Flanders is below 20 percent. Which is a good thing, because that press is in the hands of just about 1 media concern that spread exactly the "news" it wants to spread and that really doesn't care for the truth. I can't judge American papers, but in Flanders they have turned into mere propaganda machines, that are 99 percent about changing the public opinion and 1 percent about news. That has never been any different really, but now the direction of the wanted change in opinion is basically one (and that used to be different when we still had real catholics, socialists, liberals, nationalists, and so on, with their own newspapers) and people feel that (because it's far from subtle). Because people feel that, they go looking for other "news". Maybe equally fake (and you can not always debunk that in a few minutes, because in the end you'll realize you do that via for instance Google which is really not objective at all - it's just business, it's not there to inform you - ), but at least not force feeding them things they don't want to hear. Like friends "liking" what they post on Fakebook, or parents giving their children medals for no more than participating, or getting your five minutes of fame because you're just soooooo different (like all the rest of us). It's easy, it's feel good, that's it. Just as easy as believing what the papers wright or the television shows say or Google provides you with. And way easier than realizing that the enemy of your enemy is not your friend and knowing that nobody can be trusted.
Your point is taken. The delivery of news here is no different than the delivery there but I do think that the "readership" here is way more than 20%. Maybe because we have more uneducated or more populated than Flanders. And yes you are correct not all fake news can be debunked, I over simplified it. Bottom line is..."take everything you see and hear with a grain of salt" a motto not followed by many.
I wasn't referring to "readership", I was referring to the percentage of readers believing what they read. Big difference there (I don't think on the contrary that the percentage of "uneducated" people is very different on the "old" continent and the new, although many people on the "old" continent like to brag about that). But you're correct about the bottom line
I have newspapers even 25 years older than that Just luck and a certain tendency towards collecting things. About "fake news": the thing is that most news is fake, including the news that so called isn't.
Your blog is even more successful because it triggered an interesting discussion!
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Fascinating stuff
It is