Does Truthfulness Matter in Politics?

- by Mo (Montclair)

Wow, we have a unique chance tonight to compare the credibility of the various news organizations. This has become a big issue in political discourse in America.

Everyone will recall last week, all news outlets opined that Romney had won the debate, because he had. that includes msnbc which conservatives often say is liberal and biased.

Tonight, as best I can tell, all news organizations are calling this debate a narrow or moderate win for the president. Except one.

Fox News (as moderated by Sean Hannity) has declared that Romney got a "decisive win" in tonight debate. They have cited their own survey group in their studio and just now Sean said CBS instant poll declared Romney the winner by a margin of 67 to 30 percent. So, Sean is going on and on about what a great win for Romney. And millions of conservatives are gladly entering the fox news fantasy land.

I was surprised because I had seen something very different tonight and really surprised by the CBS instant poll since I do think CBS is a credible news organization.

So, I went to the CBS website and found that in fact, their instant poll has Obama winning 37 to 30%.

Hannity then breathlessly announces breaking news -- he says that candy Crowley has admitted she was wrong about the Benghazi moment and Romney was right -- Obama had failed to use the word terror in his rose garden speech.

So, I googled that and found that a couple conservative blog rags -- had put up misleading headlines saying exactly that. When you read the story, actually they are just regurgitating what happened in the debate -- Crowley said Romney wrong but that perhaps in bigger context had a good point. Which Crowley stated again after the debate.

The conservative rags twist that to say "Crowley now admits she was wrong when she first sided with Obama on Benghazi terror issue; Romney right after all"

Hannity grabs that and runs with it reporting it as fact that Crowley after the debate has retracted what she said in the debate.

This is just craziness. I just happened to catch a couple minutes of fox "news" and witnessed this. Crazy. Imagine all the falsehoods they spew in 24 hours. Will they later even retract it, I doubt it.

You see, this is the problem. the conservative political culture in America has become too often untethered from reality. This is why the Benghazi moment happened tonight. Conservative blogs, talk radio, faux news had been stating for weeks now that Obama hadn't uttered the word terror until 14 days after the attack. That wasn't true at all, but no matter to the conservative pundits. They simply state lies as fact and conservatives generally don't bother to even check.

Romney obviously didn't.

This is what I meant about the Benghazi moment being symbolic of so much more. It's simply reflective of the larger problem of conservatives too often living in an alternate reality where lies become facts and go unchallenged. If people challenge them, they declare them to be liberals and say that they simply "don't believe the lliberal media." They openly say they are not going to change campaigns based on what fact checkers say.

Anyway, a measure of justice was served tonight as the conservative culture that encourages denial of facts they don't like, this time, it burned them badly. May have cost them the election.

Facts are important and matter. Perhaps that lesson will be learned. It would be a good lesson for everyone. Especially everyone who believes anything fox news says.

Comments for Does Truthfulness Matter in Politics:

Ms Crowley will Learn the Lesson -- by Julie Lamar

Yes, hopefully Ms Crowley will learn the lesson. Can someone read the exact words that Obama spoke at the rose garden incident in contention and actually be able to say that on that occasion Obama clearly stated that the attack was an act of terror!

What the President Said -- by Mo

I think Candy Crowley fairly related what the President said.