I wanted to share this opinion piece by Margaret Sullivan of The Washington Post, published on October 12, 2022. I think this is a profoundly important piece of writing. I urge you to read it.
America’s broken and corrupt media is driving the political instability and chaos in this country every bit as much as every other broken institution in America. We are living in an era of corruption that must yield at some point to reform and renewal. Perhaps that day will arrive soon. It is impossible to know.
Donald Trump will run for president in 2024. He must be covered differently. He poses an absolutely chilling threat to peace, prosperity and domestic tranquility.
There is no way to defend democracy without participation. Participation requires competence in the practice of citizenship. Citizens must be informed and prepared to make important choice. Generally speaking, this rarely happens.
Please read.
A well written article indeed. Yesterday, Mick Mulvaney, said on CNN, "The Jan. 6 Committees airing, was an effort to help the democrats durning the midterms" (something to that effect), to ZERO pushback. The excellence of yesterdays Jan. 6 findings, the facts, and the presentation be damned, and ZERO journalist disagreed. The lies and disinformation fly fast and furious, Mulvaney could have said that in a tweet, as could have 10 others. Then what? I say, call them liars.
We are in a time when the likes of Trump fire out misinformation unbridled, directly to their listeners, and no journalist has a chance of blocking or softening, or calling out a lie. Misnaming lies as, disinformation, untruths, and even what Ms. Sullivan did in her article, trying not to use the word LIE yet again (a fabulous writing approach, but why?) "Mistruth", "Misinformation", any of the words used to make a paragraph more interesting by not using the word LIE repeatedly, soften the lie and the liar, in my opinion. There seems to be some iota of truth there, which anyone who wants there to be will jump on.
We have seen lies with zero ounce of truth in them, completely made up, and aimed at taking down an opponent, not unlike "Pizzagate", and the whole of QANON existence. What then? Politely call them out two days later, and refer to them as mistruths? We are giving liars an existence they don't deserve.
Steve Scalise has been touting the theory that Nancy Palosi held up the National Guard on January 6, for many MONTHS. He is a liar. He stood beside her, while she pleaded for the National Guard to come and rescue them all. What Steve has been doing is lying, and yesterday, cool Nancy got her due, when on video we saw the truth. Let's call Steve a liar, and Mark Meadows who supported him, a liar too.
Being polite to liars, just as we have witnessed with Trump, is the same as being polite to murderers. When people lie to you, they don't want you to be here, not in truth. They want your reality to die, and theirs to live, therefore you , yourself, are expendable. Trump doesn't care who died in his insurrection, or in his response to COVID.
Putting this in polite terms, is risky business. Had we called out Trump for lying, from the beginning, we likely wouldn't be in this mess. Keeping decorum alive, while lies swirl, is giving the liar something he or she doesn't deserve, and worse, sets us all up for serious decline. It also emboldens the liar, giving their fantasy, oxygen, while suffocating the truth.
Three of our Supreme Court Justices, lied about their intentions with ROE. Where is the article that states that? Where is the committee that is "investigating" them and their legitimacy, after those lies?
When polite society is able to call liars, liars, and hold them to task, and expel them from Public "Service", (because of lying) we may be able to reclaim our teetering democracy, but not a second
before.
Sobering article; however it seems to me that dishonest or misleading political ads on TV are far more dangerous than the content of printed media. Some of the ones I’ve seen in NC sponsored by the Senate Leadership fund and GOP candidates are spreading lies faster than Fox News. Very disturbing. And the Dems don’t or won’t counter them.