We may be jaded and we may be cynical but the sad reality is that we don\u2019t expect that our political\u00a0leaders are going to tell the truth. \u201cIf you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.\u201d \u201cRead my lips, no\u00a0new taxes.\u201d \u201cI did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.\u201d \u201cI am not a crook.\u201d It\u2019s sad,\u00a0but whether they\u2019re telling us about hidden weapons caches, college transcripts, or allegedly-hacked\u00a0Twitter accounts, at least half of us automatically won\u2019t believe politicians (Democrats if a Republican\u00a0says something, Republicans if a Democrat says it). The logical result is that at least half the country is\u00a0automatically unsurprised should a statement actually turn out to be false.<\/p>\n
Our standards for news reporting are also pretty low in that we\u2019ve come to expect bias. CNN is Liberal.\u00a0Fox is Conservative. Depending on where one stands politically, everything that\u2019s said on the wrong\u00a0network is automatically assumed to be, if not a lie, then presented through heavy filters.<\/p>\n
We saw this a few months ago, when a terrorist used his vehicle as a weapon to kill civilians at a\u00a0Jerusalem train station and the assailant was killed by police. The AP\u2019s initial headline read \u201cIsraeli Police\u00a0Shoot Man in East Jerusalem.\u201d Yeah\u2026 technically, that\u2019s true, but it\u2019s not focusing on the real news. (In\u00a0the news business, this is called \u201cburying the lede.\u201d) So, after some complaints from the public, the\u00a0headline was changed to \u201cCar slams into east Jerusalem train station.\u201d Better, but not quite there, yet.\u00a0After more complaints, the final headline was \u201cPalestinian kills baby at Jerusalem station.\u201d We finally got\u00a0there, and all it took was several thousand irate online posts.<\/p>\n
As reprehensible as we may find coloring the news like this, we roll our eyes and sigh, fully aware that\u00a0that\u2019s just the way things are. We expect it and we accept it – unless someone overtly lies. That\u2019s where\u00a0we draw the line. You can spin the facts any way you like, so long as they\u2019re the facts. (As Senator Daniel\u00a0P. Moynihan famously put it, \u201cYou are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own\u00a0facts.) Once someone crosses that line, public reaction is swift and harsh.<\/p>\n
This is why we are outraged by the indiscretion of NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. For 12 years,\u00a0Williams has maintained that a helicopter in which he was a passenger in Iraq was shot down.\u00a0Apparently, he confused his helicopter \u2013 which, it should be noted, had been hit by some enemy fire –\u00a0with the copter in front of him, which was downed. (It was in front of him by as much as an hour, though\u00a0reports vary.)<\/p>\n
Now, admittedly, this is a story that affects absolutely none of us. Its purpose was mere self-\u00a0aggrandizement, like exaggerating the size of a fish. (A flying fish that was shot down in Iraq, but a fish\u00a0nonetheless.) The problem is, once we know he\u2019s a liar, how can we trust him?<\/p>\n
Williams is in good company. I\u2019ll share one prominent example each from the past few decades:<\/p>\n
So, it turns out that the truth is actually pretty important to us as a nation. This is likewise a Jewish ethic.\u00a0Many mitzvos in the Torah revolve around the necessity to adhere to the truth. Among these:<\/p>\n
The Torah\u2019s overarching statement on the matter is Exodus 23:7: keep far away from a false matter.<\/p>\n
Truth is so important to G-d because, in a sense, G-d is truth. The prophet Jeremiah tells us, \u201cHashem G-\u00a0d is true\u201d (Jer. 10:10), a sentiment we echo twice daily by appending the word \u201cemes\u201d (true) to the end of\u00a0Shema. The Talmud echoes this sentiment by telling us that G-d\u2019s metaphorical seal is truth (Shabbos\u00a055a and Sanhedrin 64a). Rabbinic literature is replete with dicta underscoring the importance of truth.<\/p>\n
So, yes, fish tale or not, we are justified in losing faith in Brian Williams. In an industry that should value\u00a0the truth above all else, he revealed a willingness to corrupt that standard. (That\u2019s not to say that he\u00a0should never work in media again; he\u2019s just going to have to work harder to regain the public\u2019s trust.)<\/p>\n
The problem is not the speed with which we excoriate the Janet Cookes and Jayson Blairs, it\u2019s the\u00a0passivity with we assume that politicians will lie and that the news will spin the facts. Our representatives\u00a0are just as responsible to tell the truth as those in the media, while those in the media have a\u00a0responsibility to present the facts without bias. Remember, the Torah doesn\u2019t tell us not to lie, it tells us to\u00a0keep far away from falsehood. This is truth to a much greater degree. \u201cIsraeli Police Shoot Man in East\u00a0Jerusalem\u201d may not be a lie in word, but it is very much a false matter in spirit!<\/p>\n
This is the standard to which we should hold our elected officials. This is the standard to which we should\u00a0hold our reporters and news anchors. Most importantly, this is the standard to which we must hold\u00a0ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We may be jaded and we may be cynical but the sad reality is that we don\u2019t expect that our political\u00a0leaders are going to tell the truth. \u201cIf you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.\u201d \u201cRead my lips, no\u00a0new taxes.\u201d \u201cI did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.\u201d \u201cI am<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":39049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n