“Once upon a time, there was an extraordinary zoo where the animals took charge and established a unique system to govern themselves. The zoo’s leaders were held to account by a news media made up of monkeys. They reported on current events, and provided the animals with all of the relevant details. The monkeys earned the trust of the other animals by always confirming their reporting with facts. They doublechecked, verified, and qualified everything before sharing details. They exercised editorial discretion; they did not deign to cause anyone undue harm, in error or otherwise. The monkeys created various awards to give each other, to recognize how well they accomplished all of these.
   “The rest of the animals in the zoo came to appreciate and rely on the monkeys to provide them with news and information they knew was trustworthy. It made them feel well and truly informed about the world around them. They felt secure in their understanding of things, the common knowledge they all shared, and the cultural touchstones they valued. They based important, often life-altering decisions on the reporting. It was no small consolation that whenever the monkeys discovered their reporting had been inaccurate, they issued prompt retractions and thorough corrections, sometimes even apologies.
   “And then one day the animals began to realize that the media had been monkeying with the news. Nobody could pinpoint exactly when it began. Some feared that it had begun long ago, perhaps even before they were born. But it was clear now the monkeys were no longer fair in their reporting. They took sides, and they justified taking sides, on moral grounds, ironically. Now they dealt in half-truths, rumor and gossip, wild speculation, and worse. They reported things that were later revealed to be false, things that were never true in the first place, and things the monkeys wanted to be true, but were not. Rarely would they set the record straight. The increasing dishonesty of the monkeys had become more obvious to more animals every day, but they were slow to say so. Few like to admit when they have been fooled. It took Gus the gilded circus elephant throwing his considerable weight around to rattle the monkeys so much that they could no longer obscure their dishonesty, or their status as useful idiots, shilling for those in power, whether knowingly or unknowingly (the animals could not decide which was worse). Would Elephant Zookeeper Gus’s valiant efforts be enough to save the City Zoo?” 

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