Challenging Lies
by Eduardo del Buey
Hello dear readers, today I will discuss the culture of lies in public life and the media with David Gollob, a long-time journalist and national news editor for CBC News. If you enjoy this Publication, please invite your friends to subscribe and join the dialogue.
Challenging Lies
“Is politics nothing other than the art of deliberate lying?”
Voltaire
Lying has become an art form for most leaders today, and the mainstream media is doing a lousy job in taking them to task.
At the United Nations, Secretary General Antonio Guterres, UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, and U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese have lied constantly about the situation of Palestinians in Gaza and the activities of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Their accusations have been repeated verbatim by mainstream media and their statistics based on Hamas figures that have constantly been proven to be outright lies.
Yet there have been no front-page retractions of or admissions of regret for the lies reported by leaders or media despite the proof at hand.
Indeed, on September 17th, Israel mounted an attack on Hezbollah by sabotaging the thousands of pagers the organization had imported, causing them to explode at the same time and take out over a thousand Hezbollah fighters as well as injuring the Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon and his bodyguards who all had Hezbollah pagers.
This was in answer to the thousands of rockets that Hezbollah has launched against northern Israel, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes and killing many.
Yet CNN decided to report the attack with the following headline: “Pager explosions are a significant escalation as hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel simmer”.
An “escalation” on the part of Israel after Hezbollah has launched thousands of rockets against Israeli civilians!
Ridiculous!
Any questions as to why the mainstream media are failing in their coverage of the news?
On another issue, Donald Trump’s first foray into national politics in 2015 produced a package of lies about immigrants and the economy that propelled him to national prominence.
His campaign in the primaries and, later, in the presidential race and his first term in office, raised political lying to an art form.
Throughout his political life, the mainstream media has done little to challenge his lies and always pivoted to covering him rather than seeking the truth.
Indeed, a few weeks ago, Trump claimed that he had been injured by a bullet shot by s former supporter of his. There has been no medical report, and photos taken the next day saw Trump’s ear with no injury.
The mainstream media has never challenged his assertions, nor have they demanded to see a medical report to show how a former president and current candidate had indeed been injured.
Now, with a second “assassination attempt”, the media is once again playing Trump’s game of pivoting from an outrageous statement without any basis in truth to a sympathy ploy to distract from his absurd views and dangerous comments.
Coverage is at 24/7 levels and Trump is once again the center of media coverage, deflecting from his massive defeat in the debate and the outrage of his lies that Haitian illegals are eating pets in Springfield Ohio.
These lies have been buttressed by his running mate, JD Vance, a current senator from Ohio, who later claimed on national television that he and Trump fabricate stories that are in no way true in order to grab headlines.
The Republican Governor of Ohio, the mayor and police chief of the city all came out against these lies.
Regardless, these lies resulted in numerous bomb threats against schools and hospitals in Springfield. The economy and security of Springfield are taking a massive hit, all because of the lies perpetrated on national television by both Republican leaders.
Both Trump and Vance continue to double down on these false accusations, slandering the large Haitian community in the U.S. in support of their objective of demonizing immigrants as a campaign strategy.
Indeed, Vance told media that, although the Haitians in Springfield are legal immigrants, he will continue to call them illegals.
Canada is not immune from lying politicians.
Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre emulates Trump’s brand of campaigning through libelous attacks, insults, and outright lies.
Provincial premiers follow suit, and the mainstream media don’t appear willing or call to call any of them out and challenge them outright when they engage in deception or in outrageous activities.
Prime Minister Trudeau has bounced from scandal to scandal with no apologies, leaving Canadian voters with little appetite for any political candidate for the prime ministership in the next election.
New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh continued to criticize the Trudeau government while supporting it through a formal agreement. While he finally rescinded this agreement last week, this situation calls into question his honesty, and he has continued to support Trudeau on confidence votes.
While the media cover Liberal stories in greater depth than they do the antics of Conservatives, the core of each party is so strong that neither leader feels the need to withdraw or resign yet.
Political leaders and national and international institutions no longer enjoy any significant degree of public confidence. Mainstream media are losing audiences who now prefer social media as a source of information.
What we are seeing today is that constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.
Hannah Arendt once observed that a people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong.
And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies.
With such a people, you can do whatever you want.
And many leaders today are doing just that.
Videocast:
Hello Eduardo, To be very honest, I am a bit confused. The generation of multiple lies is a social phenomenon. Politicians and the media are not alone in failing our search for facts and verifiable information. We have an obligation, as citizens, to demand better discernment from our leaders and from journalists. It is too familiar to blame others; we must ask ourselves, what do we do about it?
We should not tolerate being labelled in any way just because we ask questions. Unfortunately, this is what happens in many situations, including the Israel-Gaza conflict. Why can't we concentrate on finding peace-building measures instead of pointing fingers? Almost a year has gone by, and hostages are still held; people are still dying even if they are not involved in the war. I blame all parties involved and recognize that this is not enough. We must demand peace. If enough pressure is put on leaders to have peace, we may be making progress.