2011 archive

Back in the olden days, when I was a young ‘un, there was constant talk about the “credibility” of public figures.

Politicians and journalists had to have “credibility” (which, I note, was not the same as being “credible”).

The underlying tone seemed to be that there was some quality of credible-ness that existed separately from truthfulness.

If you spoke the truth yet lacked “credibility,” no one would believe you; you were as a tinkling bell or a sounding brass. (Alternatively, if you had “credibility” you could say any old damn thing you wanted to and get away with it. See “Southeast Asia: Domino Theory”). (I think this is roughly what “gravitas” means in political discourse today.)

Clearly, truthfulness and credibility have drifted either farther apart.

James O’Keefe’s maliciously edited videos cause people to lose their jobs, even though he has repeatedly proven that he and truth live in different zip codes.

Megan Carpenter comments on the recent kerfuffle involving O’Keefe’s recent NPR hatchet job (which even Glenn Beck’s website agrees is “heavily edited”):

Of course, the real story is never what it seems with O’Keefe. From the selectively edited Acorn videos to his abortive efforts to “take down” Senator Mary Landrieu (Democrat, Lousiana), which resulted in criminal charges, to his sophomoric attempts to get a CNN reporter in a room with him and a variety of sex toys, the mainstream media has had plenty of warning about his love of “truthiness” and disregard for actual facts. And, as with most of O’Keefe’s videos to date, releasing selectively edited, embed-friendly clips got him exactly the coverage (and notches on his Flipcam) that he wanted – even as the full footage showed that almost everything he claimed to have discovered was untrue.

Yet, O’Keefe’s lies are treated as truth.

Until they are not.

Elsewhere, appearing on On the Media, NPR’s own Ira Glass wondered why NPR refused to fight back.

I don’t know the methodology that somebody would use, but I feel like public radio should address this directly, because I think anybody who listens to our stations understands that what they’re hearing is mainstream media reporting. We have nothing to fear from a discussion of what is the news coverage we’re doing.

As somebody who works in public radio, it is killing me that people on the right are going around trying to basically rebrand us, saying that it’s biased news, it’s – it’s, you know, it’s left wing news, when I feel like anybody who listens to the shows knows that it’s not. And we are not fighting back. We’re not saying anything back. I find it completely annoying and [LAUGHS], and I don’t understand it.

You can read the transcript at the link or listen to the interview here:

Republicans will continue the lies as long the lies get results.

Renee Loth in the Boston Globe.

The Republican vision of America is a cramped place of limited prospects — not blue-sky, just blue. To hear them tell it, we live in can’t-do nation. We can’t educate our children. We can’t afford a first-class transportation system. We can’t regulate the safety of our air and food and water. We can’t operate highway rest stops or public parks. We can’t even keep our criminals in prison.

And we really, truly, can’t tax rich people a penny more to help pay for these other things.

Read the whole thing.