Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler had his last election piece in the Sunday edition of the paper (11/4/12)– and it made you glad there won’t be any more.
Glenn Kessler
The article promised, in the headline at least, “The Best–or Worst?–Pinocchios of This Presidential Race.” What it delivered was something else: Eight themes of lying and deception (like “Silliest Blooper” and “Worst Math Skills”), each with one example drawn from each side. In other words, lying was perfect balanced.
And the piece closes with this bizarre attempt at “balance”:
Most complex subject for spinning–bipartisan effort
The Obama administration’s memo saying it would accept welfare waivers related to worker participation targets prompted bipartisan spinning. The Romney campaign aired an over-the-top ad that accused Obama of gutting the welfare reform law, even though no waivers have been issued. But the Democratic counterspin was also questionable, leaving largely unanswered what the administration hoped to accomplish with the new rules.
So the Republican claims about Obama’s welfare plan were “over-the-top”–which I guess is another way of saying flatly untrue. The questionable “counterspin” (hey!) Kessler is talking about would appear to be mostly about something Bill Clinton said, based on a letter written by Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. The core of the Republican claim–that Obama was seeking to end the work requirements under current welfare law–is not supported by any evidence. But Kessler, even on this controversy, wants to make it seem like the deception is bipartisan.
This, in a nutshell, has been one of the main problems with media fact checking of the presidential election. And it’s not just Glenn Kessler. PolitiFact has a “Biggest Falsehoods of the Presidential Campaign” piece by Bill Adair, where readers get three lies from each side. This is curious kind of a balance since, as an op-ed in today’s New York Times points out, PolitiFact has found Romney guilty of far more “pants on fire” lies than Obama– 19 to 7 since 2007.
But the kind of factchecking that would tell you one side is far more guilty of lying and manipulation than the other isn’t the kind of factchecking corporate media want to do.
It certainly seems — their tortured evasions and sophistry aside — that these cognoscenti are virtually admitting that one side IS lying a lot more than the other. One really doesn’t have to ‘read between the lines’ that much. As you note, they undoubtedly perceive (probably correctly so, in this current age) that their good fortunes lie with NOT offending the rich & powerful by indicting them & their minions.
In a certain sense I can’t blame them, since too many of the US public (I’m cynical enough to suspect that it’s a universal human trait, but I only have direct experience with US citizens, so I won’t extrapolate beyond them) DEMAND to be lied to, and will economically punish those who even try to force them to face the truth. (The Republican voters have ably demonstrated this over at least the last 3 presidential elections.) So what do these quasi-journalists do? Write the unvarnished truth, which will be ignored and/or rejected by the mainstream reader/viewer, and ultimately find themselves relegated to dusty back room conclaves and esoteric, scholarly journals read by few, with meager salaries, and sweating the rent? Or equivocate and play the internal political games, get moderately paid, get significant honorariums/appearance money at more swanky venues, and suffer occasional bouts of ennui? It’s always self-satisfying to demand that the OTHER GUY be more altruistic — it implies that one is already at that level — but when you’re essentially condemning him/her to a life of minor achievement, it’s kind of a tough-sell. It’s fun in the movies when the hero shows up at the climax and exposes (with a brilliant speech and strong logic) the bad guy and everyone turns on the malefactor and evil is punished or at least corrected, but a reading of history often finds mixed results, including the crowd turning on the messenger! You can’t just walk into a KKK rally, explain the falsity of their racial beliefs and expect everyone to walk away converted.
Some lies never make it on stage for the balancing act, do they?
Those are the ones both major parties promulgate, such as the inherent morality of US foreign policy, or that greed is good (with the slightest of disagreements as to just how greedy one should be).
Those are the lies used to manufacture consent.
And as such will never be subject to quality control from the manufacturers’ subsidiary.
Why obfuscate throughout this painful ordeal to read article!? Arggghh!
Would it kill you or get you in political hot water to plainly state the facts.?!
Seriously, I have had it with sloshing through high muddy Water. cancel my subscription.
Tell the truth and let the cards fall where they may…
Hi tishado:
I think we have to have the WHOLE truth, and that’s where it gets weird. It’s just more common to find parts of truth lying around. It does seem like a lot of journalists just want to make everyone happy, although I think that being happy should be left to each person, and the state of “happy’ is just as elusive as that of “truth.”
There were so many thoughts about who would be a good moderator, for the debates so maybe, we should take a look at Mr. Silver and think that maybe Pythagoras was right, and truth is really found in numbers and math. This would make sense as so many of us are math challenged, and this would be reflected as well in the logic, or lack of, in the voting populace and the candidates..
Maybe WATSON should be the next moderator. Download each candidate’s statements on everything and then put known/ fact checked facts into WATSON too, and as each candicate finishes, WATSON will remind them if they’ve fibbed.
WATSON would also have a “truth boson,” ( similar to the Higgs one. ) and should he be hacked or tampered with, he would then self destruct. We would have the ultimate reality show, and I bet a lot of people would watch those debates, and maybe then we would finally have “truthiness.” in politics and in journalism. : )
Gloriana: Nail. On Head.
Given the ROT of the Reich Wing Media these days, I think the ONLY real answer is to take the truth-screening out of the hands of ANY human beings whatsoever.
Teach a competent computer to determine in real time what is true and what is not and then set it loose on what we charitable call our “media” sphere (it really ought to be called something that reflects its true nature as a Roman Circus of diametrically-opposed feel-good story-making).
But let’s wait a bit to go for that solution, as putting a flawed creation into this hornet’s nest would likely kill the concept before its true inception.
Lighning Joe:
LOL, and thanks for that. You are so correct about a flawed ceation being put into use before the flaws turn it into a hornet’s nest! Mr. Romney’s ORCA was whale of a fail, wasn’t it. : )
Lies in the election cycle?The one that jumps out at me is that republicans hate woman.How do you keep that one going ,now that the election is over?A month from now.A year….how does Obama keep saying that ,and working it into every speech from here on out ,as he has in the last year?If he has the courage of his convictions he will.If it was all a bullshit lie…. he wont.As far as truth and moving forward Im all for it.First should be a dropping of the presidential shield over fast and furious.Everyone should be compelled to testify.President should be first , and make a good example.Next…. same thing with the Bengazi scandal.He should testify.I think the president should sit down with Barbara Waters, and answer all those silly questions the Rs are always asking.How in the hell did he get into those schools with his grades.Explain those land deals.Release a ton of records.Give Trump what he wants and take that 5 mill and give it to the unions for their pension funds if he wants.Lets clear the air.Start over.All these questions (and there are tons)can be answered by Obama.He is the president.Elections behind him.No one can hurt him.Give the right and left wing press a president that truly is open and honest.It will be a long and trying interrogation”.But after 4 years of massive secrecy …….I believe it would truly help.
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