Truthiness
Posted at 10:21pm on Apr. 5, 2008 Not Just Burying The Lede, But Missing It Altogether
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
The point of this article should not be that the Clinton campaign misrepresented and dramatized a story in order to gain tears, sympathy and votes on the campaign trail. The point should be that when stories meant to pull at the heartstrings of voters and the media are referenced over and over on the campaign trail, it behooves the media to ask two questions:
- Is the story true?
- Is the story typical of what goes on in America or has the media fallen for the "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality that defines so much of what the media covers and reports on?
With regard to Hillary Clinton's stump story, those questions was not asked until relatively late in the game. And thus far, they haven't been asked about other hard-luck stump stories told by the Clinton campaign or by other candidates. I won't be in the least bit surprised if a number of Barack Obama's stories-for-sympathy end up being factually inaccurate. Of course, a number of them will be true as well; we do not yet live in Utopia. But there is a clear and distinct tendency on the part of the media to tell us every election cycle that life is just awful for ordinary folks. And as we know, the truth is quite different.
We are likely in a recession. Life could be better. But life is still astonishingly good when you consider the entire picture. I don't want candidates for the Presidency to be Pollyannish. But to be realistic, candidates for the Presidency ought to appreciate and acknowledge much more than they actually do that they live in a society where miracles are par for the course.
Posted in 2008 | Campaign Narratives | Truthiness — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »
