Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Why Does Nicholas Kristof Have a Job?

[Guest guest]

http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/001112.html

 

June 30, 2004

Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Why

Does Nicholas Kristof Have a Job? Edition)

 

Andrew Northrup reads Nicholas Kristof, and his head

explodes:

 

The Poor Man: He's Not A Liar, He's My President!:

Nicolas Kristof is sick and tired of people calling

the President a liar. And he's got lots of arguments

about why this is a terrible thing to do:

 

I'm against the " liar " label for two reasons.

First, it further polarizes the political cesspool,

and this polarization is making America increasingly

difficult to govern. Second, insults and rage impede

understanding.

 

Indeed. It is wrong to call the President a liar,

because that's a bad word. Liberals should think of a

nicer way of couching their criticism. Kristoff gives

an example:

 

In fact, of course, Mr. Bush did stretch the

truth. The run-up to Iraq was all about exaggerations,

but not flat-out lies. Indeed, there's some evidence

that Mr. Bush carefully avoids the most blatant lies —

witness his meticulous descriptions of the periods in

which he did not use illegal drugs.

 

See? The President doesn't lie, he only

exaggerates, maybe stretches the truth on occassion,

possibly says things in such a way as to deliberately

leave the listener with the wrong impression. Indeed,

there's some evidence that Mr. Bush carefully avoids

the most blatant lies - and if maybe perhaps carefully

avoiding the most blatant lies isn't an adequate

standard of truthfulness to hold the President to,

well, I just don't know what this country is coming

to.

 

There's the usual litany - Michael Moore is a

uncritical conspiracy theorist (true), ergo the

President is truthful (false); calling the President a

liar is like accusing Bill Clinton of murder; Bush

always says the wrong thing, so maybe everything was

just a big misunderstanding; liberals are turning into

what they hate the most; etc. Largely unexplored,

however, is the issue of whether or not Bush is a

liar. Let's explore it:

 

He has lied about his time in the National Guard,

and lied about his criminal history. He lied about his

relationship with Ken Lay, he lied about who would

benefit from his tax cuts, and he lied about stem

cells. He lied about his visit to Bob Jones

University, he lied about why he wouldn't meet with

Log Cabin Republicans, and he lied about reading the

EPA report on global warming. He lied about blaming

the Clinton administration for the second intifada, he

lies constantly about how he pays no attention to

polls, he lied about how he loves New York, and he

lied about moving the US embassy in Israel to

Jerusalem. He lied about finding WMD in Iraq, he lied

about making his decision to go to war, he lied about

the CIA's dismissal of the yellowcake rumors, and he

lied about the IAEA's assessment of Iraq's nuclear

program. He lied about funding the fight against AIDS

in Africa, he lied about when the recession started,

and he lied about seeing the first plane hit the WTC.

He lied about supporting the Patient Protection Act,

and he lied about his deficit spending, and now my

wrist hurts.

 

These are all lies, told by the President himself.

This doesn't include any distortions, half-truths, or

exaggerations, or any lies told by senior figures in

the administration. These lies are big and small.

Together, these lies involve trillions of dollars and

at least tens of thousands of deaths, and Nicolas

Kristoff is terribly concerned about sharp words and

Michael Moore movies. It is indeed too bad that the

" political cesspool " is becoming polarized, but I

don't think that the solution to this is to shoot the

messenger and agonize over ever-finer definitions of

falsehood. It shouldn't be this difficult to get your

priorities in order.

 

[uPDATE: If anyone needs help prioritizing, Tim

Dunlop has a handy list of what is important and what

isn't.]

 

Why does Nicholas Kristof still have a job?

Posted by DeLong at June 30, 2004 01:27 PM | TrackBack

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