Secret truths

Documentary film makers have increasingly taken on the role of the seemingly righteous crusader who faces danger and ridicule to discover what scholars have hidden. Conspiracies strike a nerve with documentary viewers because our knowledge of human nature suggests the hazy possibility that our received traditions are rooted in lies (Goldberg 2001). Conspiracy theories stimulate the popular imagination and lead some people to believe that the world’s chaos is the byproduct of concealed truths and that recovering these secrets will set things right. They can be powerfully seductive because they validate our suspicion that not all is right in the world. The seductive allure of stories about forgotten manuscripts and artifacts grows out of the popular idea that covert forces have concealed truths that need to be brought to light by the reporter or film maker (Fenster 1999).—Archaeology, Bible, Politics, and the Media, pages 119-120