“TOO GOOD TO CHECK” is the technical term for a story like the censoring of “Guernica.” Secretary of State Colin Powell, so the story goes, went to the United Nations to present the case for war against Iraq to the Security Council, then took questions from the press standing before a blue backdrop–a backdrop specially erected at the insistence of the warmongers to conceal a tapestry version of Picasso’s great painting depicting the horrors of war. The episode was a bonanza for antiwar, anti-Bush propagandists and those eager to believe them. Writers of letters to the editor recycled the claim as fact. Artists embraced it as higher truth. Some professors were less than meticulous about checking their sources. Here’s a typical reference, from a Canadian newspaper, the Victoria Times Colonist of March 20:

Even powerful politicians like Colin Powell can flinch before the artistic power of an artist like Pablo Picasso, says an incoming University of Victoria professor.