Government and Truth

How can you tell when a politician is lying? -- Dinty Ramble
His lips are moving. -- Pug Mahoney

   How little times have changed.

   Young reporter to editor: "Did you ever get the feeling that a politician is lying to you?"
   Editor: "Of course. It happens all the time when you're working two sides of a story and it's clear that one side is lying. Sometimes they both are, but it's not always your job to decide which side is. Your responsibility is to report both sides and let the reader decide who's truthful and who's not."

   Ignoring the questions does not make them go away.
   News outlets continue to provide information to the public.
   It's not a crime to lie to reporters or to the public generally. It is, however, a crime to lie to law enforcement or to Congress.

From the archive, August, 2012

   There has been a noticeable change among TV interviewers when dealing with politicians. They remind the subject that he or she did not answer the question, following up with something like, "Are you, or are you not ... ?" This is a good change.
   Candidates and elected officials from the president on down talk too much and say too little. Answer the question, please. Say what you have to say briefly and concisely, and move on. Otherwise, you give the impression that you don't really know what you're talking about, and you resort to speaking at length in the hope that an idea will come to you while you're prattling.
   Heed the advice of Plato: Do not "return a long-winded harangue to every question, impeding the argument and evading the point, and speaking at such length that most of (your) hearers forget the question." (Protagoras, 336:c-d, Jowett translation)
   The strategy of pettifoggery and gobbledygook mixed with bombast may sound good to the base of devoted followers, but to those who listen for intelligent ideas amid all the sound and fury, it prompts the question: How dumb do they think we are? The cynic's reply: Very.
   Too often, we get the kind of government we deserve, not the kind we need.

   How little times have changed.