Who’s Telling the Truth in Washington? Anyone?: New at Reason

For politicians, lying is an art form.

A. Barton Hinkle writes:

Even if you set political slant aside, the media sometimes get stories badly wrong. Think of Dan Rather’s “fake but accurate” memos about George W. Bush’s service in the National Guard. Or Rolling Stone‘s retracted cover story about a rape at U.Va. Or CNN’s retracted story about how the U.S. military used sarin gas against defectors. Or The New York Times‘ reporting on Saddam Hussein’s purported weapons of mass destruction—reporting The Times eventually recanted. Partly. Sort of. With qualifications and so on.

That combination of ideological slant and human fallibility gives Republicans reason to be skeptical of the press. So doubt is a natural reaction when a long train of allegations against Donald Trump, based largely on unnamed sources and unseen memos, dominates the headlines.

Say this much for the establishment press, though: For all its shortcomings, it doesn’t lie to your face. Newspapers and news shows are not going to run with a claim they know is a steaming pile of bogus.

Politicians and their henchmen do. All the time.

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