Let’s Hold All Politicians Accountable For Lying. Not Just The Ones We Dislike

Source: The Federalist | January 26, 2017 | David Harsanyi

The quality of your lying is not a measure of your lie.

….

False statements deliberately intended to deceive Americans are always lies. Sophisticated falsehoods, whether they are couched in emotional appeals or in an effort to push “good” causes, are still lies. Plastering layers of equivocations, half-truths, and strawmen all over those lies do not make them any less misleading. Bad liars who lie about stupid things aren’t necessarily worse than gifted liars who lie about important ones.

This is a long way of saying: stop acting like Sean Spicer is the first White House press secretary to shamelessly tell untruths.

….

A broken promise or a fudging of details or a misreading of the future is not really a lie. Obama did those things, too. He also lied, though he was a lot better at deploying dishonesty. His top foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes created an echo chamber within the administration that manipulated many in the media with lies about the Iran nuclear deal that was soon regurgitated for public consumption. Why wouldn’t reporters have treated Obama’s fairy tale about a YouTube video instigating a terrorist attack against the United States with at least the same outrage they treat a Trump lie about crowd sizes?

….

None of this excuses the Trump administration’s mendacity (although getting sucked into hysterics every time the man says something ridiculous seems like a waste of time.) In the first days of Trump’s presidency, the White House press office has been turned into The Department of Alternative Facts because Hillary had a larger overall vote total (which is irrelevant) and Obama’s had a bigger inaugural crowd (same). All of this speaks to president’s personal insecurities.

Whatever the case, holding those in power accountable is a big improvement over the alternative. The problem is, the abdication of that duty for the past eight years has created an environment in which half the country doesn’t trust you. “Now more than ever” we need the press, they say. We needed it then, as well.

Some Trump critics call this kind of argument “whataboutism,” because they’d like to avoid talking about their own hypocrisy and bias. We can’t reset history every time it’s convenient. We can, however, do our best to call out both sides for lying when they do it.

Tagged: 

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.