On the ethical issues of fictionalizing parts of a movie which claims to present true events.

It is impossible to recount history with perfect accuracy, no matter how hard you work. Even for recent history there are always things which the best research cannot determine. For events further in the past, there are often disagreements about how to interpret the primary sources, and even major uncertainties. You may have to choose which interpretation to dramatize. Whichever you choose, it may be mistaken or only part of the truth. One can only do one's best.

But that doesn't excuse intentionally choosing not to do one's best. I am deeply disappointed by gratuitous falsification of history simply to make the plot "more exciting". When I learned that The Great Escape was mostly fiction, I felt cheated by it. It presents a notice which tries to acknowledge that parts are fiction, but phrased misleadingly: the notice states that the way they dug and used the tunnel were accurate, but did not explicitly say that most of the rest was not.

Even in Midway, which is mostly accurate, some points have been made erroneous -- and it would have been so easy to get them right.

*Crime in the US is once again falling. Can we rethink policing?*

Oakland, California, is an exception. Oakland's Operation Ceasefire cut the murder rate by almost half, during 2012-2017, but then it was altered and made ineffective; the murder rate almost to the previous level.

It worked by identifying gang members who were likely to get involved in deadly fights, then -- rather than repressing them -- making relationships with them to lead them away from that danger.

Google promised to delete location data about visits to abortion clinics -- and some other places, too. But the changes are only effective in a fraction of cases.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has listed Israel as tied with Iran for sixth place on the "worst jailers of journalists" list.

*Manufacturers of 10 Drugs Slated for Medicare Price Negotiation Spent Billions More on Buybacks, Dividends and Executive Compensation than R&D.*

US drug companies have worked hard to corrupt the system of studies to measure the effects of approved and proposed medicines. They can do this because the investigations get their funds from the drug companies. Therefore, we should take those studies entirely away from companies. The government should pay for these studies, getting funds from drug companies through taxes but denying them any say about what will be tested or by whom.