The Truth
William De Worde writes a letter for a small but discerning
audience of foreigners, to tell them the news. Moveable type had previously
been banned in Ankh-Morpork, due to the twin reasons of not using the same
letters that have been used for magic and/or religious books and it being
closed out by the Engraver’s Guild. De Worde falls in with some dwarves who
have a printing press, and more by luck than judgment starts a newspaper, the
Ankh-Morpork Times.
Pratchett, a former journalist, then cycles through about
200 years worth of development of journalism, with jokes and asides that delve
deep into the triviality and nobility of the profession. After the Patrician
makes a visit and decides to let them continue printing, the Engravers Guild
strike back, founding a tabloid with dubious and sensational stories. De Worde
puts together a reporting team, including a vampire iconographer (photographer)
whose use of flash eels (that absorb sunlight) keeps making him crumble to dust.
He’s also experimenting with eels that absorb dark, with weird and horrible
effects.
As this newspaper war is starting a plot against the
Patrician kicks off. It involves two out of town criminals who make a bit of a
mess of it but manage to improvise so it appears the Patrician attacked his
clerk and then was trying to flee town with saddlebags full of gold. This
obviously makes no sense, but the moment the foundations shifts, everyone who would
normally support him starts jockeying for power, the plotters who don’t like
his changes (dwarves and trolls and foreigners coming in mostly) able to push
forward a new candidate.
De Worde and his team of reporters are tangling with the
lawyer who is the cut out on the plot, and who he manages to put off and put on the
back foot by dictating a story about what he’s doing in the shed where they do
the printing. The Watch is investigating the crime but can’t disprove the
events, meanwhile everyone realises that the Times has parts of the story they
don’t want, though they overestimate where they are. They don't know what the truth is, but they do have a piece of it.
This is all pretty funny.
Read This: It’s a Pratchett Discworld novel where he takes a
concept from the real world and shoves it satirically into his wild and
hilarious fantasy world
Don’t Read This: You don’t care about the press, especially
when dwarves get involved