MAKIN’ POINTS - The late US Senator, ambassador, and academic Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Everyone is entitled to their own point of view, but not to their own facts.”
Those words become increasingly important as we enter into the height of the Silly Season, otherwise known as the last couple of the months of a presidential campaign.
The negative campaigning is going to get worse … because it works. Sadly, it’s what we voters respond to.
It’s why we, as a society, enjoy watching reality shows centered around dysfunctional people, and why we can’t turn our eyes away from the headlines in the tabloids at the supermarket checkout lines.
We aren’t interested in reading about the 24-year marriages of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, or Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. We want to know who’s having an affair with whom. We love train wrecks.
Recently, President Barack Obama boasted that American automakers are “back on top of the world.” The truth is that although General Motors made a big comeback, it is second behind Toyota, and should be passed shortly by Volkswagen.
Obama told us that Mitt Romney thought it was “tragic” that the war was ended in Iraq. But Romney said was “tragic” that it took so long.
Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan has been saying that Obama’s healthcare plan has siphoned money from Medicare. In fact, Medicare’s chief actuary said that the system’s financial situation has substantially improved.
And the Republican candidates blamed Obama for the downgrading of the nation’s credit rating by Standard and Poor’s. But S&P was clear that the ding was due to the refusal of both parties in Congress to reach a compromise on raising the debt ceiling.
Adding to this culture of misinformation are the people who pass along messages that infuriate them without taking 60 seconds to find out if they are fact or fiction.
It’s like we’ve given steroids given to the town gossips.
A most recent example was a Facebook message I received that President Obama had refused to let the nation’s highest-ranking Catholic clergyman lead a prayer at the Democratic National Convention, and instead allow a Muslin prayer service.
Of course none of it was anywhere near the truth. It may have originated on Glenn Beck’s website, a person who has developed a reputation for not letting truth standing in the way of alarming his audience.
When you read something that seems a little off the wall, a good first stop is www.snopes.com.
Officially known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, the award-winning website was founded by a husband and wife in 1995. She’s a Canadian citizen, and he’s a registered independent. The site is funded through advertising revenue.
Located at the University of Pennsylvania, and funded by the Annenberg Foundation, www.FactCheck.org focuses on political misinformation. Its director worked for the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and CNN.
If you like charts and numbers, www.PolitiFact.com might interest you. It’s a project of the Tampa Bay Times.
Its Obameter and GOP Pledge-O-Meter keep a scorecard on the promises made by both sides. By the way, Obama leads in Promises Kept 37% to 19%, and has broken 16% of his promises compared to 19% by the Republicans.
The site even tracks statements made by pundits such as Jon Stewart, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh.
Neighborhood councils could significantly upgrade the quality of city campaigns by organizing a similar myth-busting service, or at least convince a local newspaper, or an organization like the League of Women Voters to lead the crusade for the truth behind the spin.
(Greg Nelson is a former general manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, was instrumental in the creation of the LA Neighborhood Council System, served as chief of staff for former LA City Councilman Joel Wachs … and occasionally writes for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 74
Pub: Sept 14, 2012