Corporate journalism is not known for standing up to powerful politicians–or for its long memory. And so, when factchecks of the first presidential debate revealed that GOP candidate Mitt Romney was often not very truthful, sometimes even misstating his own policies, the media not only failed to make much of a fuss over Romney’s falsehoods, they also failed to tie them into a GOP tradition of debate dissembling.
Wait, did I just say a GOP tradition of debate dissembling? That’s right–it’s a strategy that was acknowledged as far back as 1984, but it’s gone virtually unmentioned in U.S. media since then.
The strategy was first revealed in an October 4, 1984 New York Times piece that quoted Peter Teeley, the press secretary to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, who said, “You can say anything you want during a debate and 80 million people hear it.” Teeley added that, if the candidate spoke untruthfully: ”So what? Maybe 200 people read it or 2,000 or 20,000.”
Corporate media have failed to connect this time-tested strategy to Romney’s performance–where Think Progress claimed he repeated “27 myths in 38 minutes.” Indeed, besides MichaelMoore.com, which recently dug up the New York Times report, virtually no one has mentioned it in years.
Of course, the reason Republicans think they can get away with lying in debates is the same reason they think they can speak publicly of a strategy of lying in debates–they believe they will never be called on it by the media that reach the vast majority of voters. And they’re right.
Well at least someone is remembering this.
Call it being down with lying on the job
The GOP is beholden to the media, the media is beholden to corporatists, the corporatist are beholden to the GOP, one big viscious cycle
is there a place that won’t strike other’s as liberal basis where one might obtain the times article as reprinted in MM’s site (second source checking the verbiage as posted). I’d love to share the article but the MM will turn away 50%+- readers
never mind
NYTimes archive http://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/01/us/2-approaches-to-a-candidate-s-image-showing-the-message-or-speaking-it.html
I’m beginning to think the only way to combat the GOP’s allegiance to prevarication, is to start demonizing conservatives in similar fashion to how they turned the word ‘liberal’ into an epithet. This would be a battle waged for the continuation of our democratic government over the wanton greed, ignorance and evil that’s overtaken the Republican Party: we have an unlimited arsenal from which to mount an offensive. We can use their inability to speak truthfully (in public anyway) against them with a constant assault of truth. Eventually the ‘Plutocrat Party’ members will be too afraid to show themselves in public, for fear of coming face to face with the truth. Like the vampire that lives on blood dares not enter a sunlit room, the republican whom is sustained by lying will dive under a rock to avoid answering to the public. The ‘Plutocrat Party’ is about anti-representative – repressive and regressive government, using verifiable acts of sedition to deny Americans their right to vote for purpose of stealing the government. The truth matters, if citizens give a damn.
@ Daniel: I’ve been around for a bit more than eight decades, and during that time Republican Party campaign rhetoric has invariably appealed primarily to paranoid fears of losing earthly possessions.
I’ve come to believe that there is simply no hope for such deluded ballot casters, and unless rational voters out-number them, the Republican Party will strike down virtually all the federal and state assistance programs that now help people get on their feet.
The economy, of course, cannot adjust to such a drastic reorganization, and America’s decline, which was initiated under President George Bush, will continue.
Over a certain age, we remember the good old days when ’60 Minutes’ did a credible job of holding corrupt CEOs and politicians accountable. These folks would run away when they saw 60 Minutes crew coming. In the 1970s, plutocrats said ‘if you can control the message, then you control the people.’ They have achieve their objective. Today they control the message so they can lie, steal, lie, lie; who’s to stop them. The journalists, the talking heads, the tv & radio stations all belong to the plutocrats.
Daniel people on this side of the coin already are afraid.Look at the hollywood star.A black woman against Obama?????ATTACK!How much angrier can your side get at anyone who does not carry your water?Any conservative woman (Palin) is viciously attacked.We just had a debate where the Dem VP refused to even let the opposing viewpoint be heard.What you call lies- we call freedom to have our own opinion.If Mitt looses we who voted for him will return to work.What do you think will happen if Obama does?Or if it is close?Bedlam my friend.Thats not America.That is….. the liberals among us.Don’t threaten us that you may get even worse.Do your worst.We will do our best.
Unless you begin to have a real watchdog media that starts calling lies, politicians have every incentive to lie as much as they want… How can that be good for our politics?