Complaining: Documentary Of Lies

The problem described is a work accused of using falsehoods. It is TV Tropes doing the accusing. We aren't a site for evaluating the scientific or historical accuracy of a documentary. Dan Browned is not "a work uses fictional information" but "a fictional work presents X as being accurate to Real Life and TV Tropes says that's part of the fiction".

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

I still haven't heard what we are supposed to call documentaries such as Nanook of the North which are presented as documentaries but are largely scripted and fictional.

Based on a Great Big Lie?

?

I'm gonna just assume that Based on a Great Big Lie is the way to categorize such works as Nanook of the North unless the forum comes to a different conclusion.

I think we're better off not labeling it as any sort of trope. Possible to do something in the description, but only if it is a widely known fact about the work. Otherwise you're pretty much asking how to cause the same problem that was voted against being caused here.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Well these are known facts that I've been asking about since June of last year (see post #27). Nanook of the North is known to have been staged and scripted. This is not YMMV and isn't subject to debate.

And Nanook isn't a controversial example, but others with "known facts" are:

• Roger & Me
  • Moore's debut film claimed, or at least strongly implied, that General Motors had completely pulled out of Flint, Michigan, devastating the economic life of the town. That film was released in 1989. In 1998, a strike by GM workers in Flint, Michigan, brought GM operations to a standstill across the continent. Moore and Warner Bros. were successfully sued for "false light invasion of privacy" (i.e. a deliberate misrepresentation of character) by Flint attorney Larry Stecco, who is shown attending a high society gathering and praising Flint as a good place to live. The film implies that Stecco was a rich snob who was oblivious to the city's hardships, when in fact he worked pro bono for Flint's poor, was an active Democrat, and considered Moore a longtime friend.

• Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed attempts to make the case that evolutionists have attempted to suppress the teaching of Intelligent Design theory in academia. In an effort to discredit evolutionary theory, it also attempts to link it to Social Darwinism, specifically of the kind in which the Nazis believed. The scientists interviewed have since claimed that the interviews were quote mined, and that they were interviewed under false pretenses.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

Based on a Great Big Lie is about works of fiction being billed as "Based on a true story" or "Inspired by true events".

True, we can rule out works on religious subject matter from being on this trope as Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment, but things like Michael Moore being successfully sued for misrepresenting someone in Roger and Me, as well as claims that are provable falsehoods, is objective and not up for debate.

edited 24th Apr '16 7:16:02 PM by maxwellsilver

I cleaned the wicks so we don't have to worry about that. Is there anything else left to do or discuss?

Macron's notes

This trope has a lot of partisan political stuff I'm not sure we want to get involved with, especially Moore-related stuff. People on the discussion tab were complaining about a "liberal" bias, after all.

edited 3rd May '16 5:18:36 AM by YasminPerry

Closing per Macron Notes's comment.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman