The L Word

Respect must be earned.
It cannot be demanded.

   For many years, news outlets used softer words when dealing with falsehoods uttered by politicians, government officials and celebrities.
   Synonyms were common, and included such words as misspoke, fabrication, misled, fiction, inaccurate, misrepresented, fraudulent, misstatement, or hyperbole.
   Rarely, if ever, did journalists use the word "lie," either in print or broadcast.
   That has changed. 

      When a claim is so far from truth, fact or reality that it deserves the term "whopper" and is false on its face and so easily disproven as to make one wonder why it was perpetrated in the first place, then it's time to consider calling it what it really is: A lie.
   Now, the President of the United States is being caught daily in perpetrating falsehoods, and his acolytes firmly repeat the claim as they attack those who question its veracity.
   The result can only diminish respect for the person who occupies the most important office in America.
   And the L word now appears on the front pages of daily newspapers.
   Repeating a lie early and often, louder and to more people as time passes, does not and cannot make it true.