The Truth About Truth
It’s the sort of deep, philosophical question that can keep college kids arguing passionately and earnestly far into the night.
One thing is clear, however, about the nature of truth in Wisconsin’s current political campaigns: Truth is not something that can be measured by a Truth-O-Meter.
When the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the state’s largest newspaper, announced it had joined the St. Petersburg Times’ Pulitzer-Prize-winning PolitiFact project to track the veracity of political campaigns, many of us welcomed the idea.
It came at a time when extremist Tea Party Republicans were unleashing outrageous lies as an intentional political strategy. They spread whopper after whopper about the president’s citizenship, religion and political ideology, as well as imaginary government panels plotting to exterminate senior citizens.
The Journal Sentinel assigned a swarm of its very best reporters to comb sentence by sentence through the campaign rhetoric of state elections to hand down pronouncements on whether election claims were True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True, False or the ignominious Pants On Fire.
The first thing you notice about the grading system is that there are four shades of truth (including not very true) and only two kinds of lies—a lie and a %$#@ LIE!
Most professional politicians are sophisticated enough to deal in half-truths. It’s usually easier to get someone to believe something that’s not true if you dress it up with a few known facts and simply twist those facts until they bear absolutely no resemblance to reality.
But that’s not the biggest problem with the Truth-O-Meter.
For weeks, as journalists have wasted their talents interminably examining isolated sentences in political commercials, we’ve endured column after column of tortured hair-splitting about the nuances of various parts of speech.
At the same time, we’ve learned practically nothing of the actual truth about the records of the candidates. And some of the biggest lies underlying some major campaigns have gone completely unreported and unchallenged.
This is far worse than the old cliché about failing to see the forest for the trees. The Truth-O-Meter is lost somewhere in the woods focusing on blades of grass.
Truth Malfunction
The campaigns for governor of Democrat Tom Barrett
and Republican Scott Walker both have broad themes that should be examined
closely by serious journalists.
Barrett, as mayor of Milwaukee, presents himself as
a job creator. Obviously, the devastating national recession was not Barrett’s
fault, but the mayor and every other local leader share the shame of failing to
organize a crisis response to Milwaukee having the fourth-highest urban poverty
rate in the nation.
But it is in response to the campaign of County
Executive Walker the Truth-O-Meter has seriously malfunctioned.
Quite frankly, Walker has been making claims around
the state that Milwaukee reporters know to be false.
In speeches and ads, Walker brazenly suggests he
should be elected governor of the state because of his fiscal management of
Milwaukee County. Walker claims he stabilized a disastrous economic situation,
prevented tax increases and sometimes even created surpluses.
This is the same Scott Walker who dropped out of his
last campaign for governor in 2006 shortly after publicly announcing Milwaukee
County might require a major bailout from the state to avoid bankruptcy under
his leadership.
Milwaukee County’s finances haven’t gotten any
better since. In fact, they’re worse since Walker borrowed $400 million to
invest over 25 years, hoping to earn enough to reduce the county’s ballooning
pension debt. No one’s personal financial adviser would ever advocate such a
risky scheme.
Barrett recently launched a series of tough ads
citing news stories about the county’s dire straits financially as well as
patient safety issues at the mental health center and mismanagement of poverty
assistance programs that resulted in a state takeover.
The Journal
Sentinel and its reporters are well aware of the precarious state of
Milwaukee County’s finances. But when the newspaper ran Barrett’s ad on the
county’s financial crisis through its Truth-O-Meter, an amazing thing happened.
As might be expected, the Truth-O-Meter lit up and
said: “Tilt!” But, unbelievably, it wasn’t Walker’s financial
misrepresentations that set off all the alarms. The Truth-O-Meter didn’t like
the graphics the Barrett campaign used in the commercial.
Specifically, the
Journal Sentinel didn’t like the fact that headlines from its own newspaper
flashed by on the screen to tell the story of the financial shambles of
Milwaukee County.
They were actual headlines from the newspaper. But
editor Martin Kaiser objected they weren’t exact replicas of the stories. The
nameplate of the newspaper was sometimes included over the stories. Pictures of
Walker were inserted.
There’s something seriously wrong with a
Truth-O-Meter that objects to how its newspaper is represented, but fails to
notice the Big Lie of a completely untrue picture of Milwaukee County’s
financial management being spread throughout the state during an election.
And that’s the truth.
Well done reporting between the Journal Sentinel and Sheppard Express about both candiates. I think the truth is out there and has been in the media for a great deal even before the primaries.
The people have decided that Joel was wrong and that Walker did what he could with the County Budget quagmire.
Are you ‘weary’ yet? The 'elections' are 1 month away, so keep this in mind... FACTS: America is the #1 in debt nation in the world - it's people and it's government. USA has less than 5% of the world's population, more than 70% of the world's attorneys and 25% of the world's prisoners. It is the the least free nation on earth. It has 94% of the world's lawsuits. Even someone who is fooled by government should be able to spot the trend.
The 94% of the world's lawsuits will raise the costs of health care, food, cars and every necessity of life, while bleeding the people who live in the USA dry, suppress the blessings of liberty, eventually take all their possessions and property and keep them in perpetual slavery -- until a majority finally wake up! Can't happen to you? That is what your neighbors thought too. Don't wait until it is too late. When is enough, enough already?! Are these current systems working - government, courts, banking (Federal Reserve System) ? No, not when 2% of the population control 98% of the wealth, and the courts & govts. are controlled by greed. Most people have heard of OR participated in the concept - Vote with your wallet - Boycott "xyz" product or service. Many understand the concept - United we Stand, Divide we Fall in support of a cause, etc. Now let's peek behind the curtain and reveal how the "Controlling Elite" have manipulated the system for only their benefit. It is simple concept called - Divide and Conquer = Create and promote only a two party system and make it appear as though that each has different viewpoints and agendas. Allow only those two parties to receive the majority of the media exposure. Politicians from both parties promote "change", yet this has been going on for centuries and from one to generation to the next with basically the same results. The "Controlling Elite" = create the problem, have their minions offer up a solution and then sit back and collect from either side of the ledger on the outcome no matter the result. This is intended for people already registered to vote: Here is where the Revolutionary yet simple concept comes into play - Vote United. It is easy - In the upcoming election, vote in the 'write in ballot' area: NO MORE The NO MORE Campaign is a simple declaration = enough already! People truly have the power and are finally taking ownership of that fact. Be part of those who stand united and vote: NO MORE on November 2nd For those wishing to make a stronger declaration - Just don't vote at all and OPT OUT. It's well documented that the voting apparatus in the USA is rigged anyhow and has been many years! Need proof ? - there is plenty available, if you take the time to do your own due diligence. This is a good start:
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