If you tell a lie and keep on repeating it, people will eventually believe it. So said Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda czar for the Nazi regime.

In Malaysia, there’s no need to repeat a lie. When a lie is told in the mainstream media, opposing views do not see the light of day. The lie is left unchallenged. It becomes the only version out there and by default, the truth.

Take Exhibit A - Kuala Lumpur police chief Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman. He told the media that last Saturday’s anti-ISA vigil in Dataran Merdeka was banned because the organisers failed to get a police permit.

That was, to put it mildly, a blatant lie.