Michael Swickard
Sometimes in media accounts of what is happening in our little slice of heaven the truth is easy to see. While that is not often, I really do enjoy those times that the truth stands by itself. At other times the truth is only what you make of it. And some people can take what might turn out to be true and turn it into something else for political reasons.
Maybe I am just getting older and more cranky, but it seems this election cycle I have not seen what I thought was the truth very often. Worse, the lies were so pitiful that it is painful to have to hear them again and again when the first time you heard them you spotted them as impossible to be true.
Oddly, not many people seem to be troubled by this ambiguity about the truth in our media. I was thinking of this on this week before the election. My phone at home has rung every five minutes for months now but I have not answered it because I know it is just candidates chipping at each other, and pollsters.
If we were to do a poll, we must separate fact from interpretation. Example: This is fact: Bif Largecrash drove his 1966 Ford truck off the side of a hill Saturday while trying to tune the radio saying it was because the song playing reminded him of his ex-wife’s lawyer. He was thrown from the truck and found still clutching the radio knob. He received 17 stitches at the local emergency room along with some advice. Policeman Al L. Blanks said it was good the ground broke Bif’s fall or he could have been hurt.
In the above story the facts are not in dispute. Consider, though, there are others stories which are more a matter of conjecture: Town Councilor I. M. Shady called Mayor Dee Power a cheater and stupid. “Am not,” replied Power. “Which one?” asked Shady. “Let me think,” said Dee.
In the second example there is not exactly a truth, rather a conflict of opinions. So we can draw any conclusion we would like about the story, with the one proviso that most people will believe the worst about any ambiguity in a news account. Could have happened turns quickly into, “Why, it must have happen!”
A poll
I was thinking it sure would be nice to have a poll where “conjecture” stories were listed and readers could indicate to what degree they were believable.
Rate your confidence in each statements from 0 to 100. A rating of 100 means you are completely confident of it being true, like something your mother told you, whereas 0 means you do not believe it at all, like something a politician promised on the campaign trail.
- President Bill Clinton did not understand how to smoke marijuana, so he did not inhale. ______
- President Richard Nixon was almost correct when he contended that he was not really a crook. _____
- In an emergency the police will not arrive quicker than a pizza delivery. _____
- Van Gogh went into painting because he had no ear for music. ______
- The earth is more round than flat. ______
- Eight out of every five people are math illiterates. _____
- Outlaws are more interesting than in-laws. _____
- 90% of politicians give the other 10% a bad name. _____
- Japanese leaders remember Pearl Harbor better than American leaders. _____
- You can always tell when a lawyer is lying. _____
- Illegal aliens were the biggest problem Native Americans faced. _____
- If taxes are outlawed, only outlaws will have taxes. _____
- The number 13 is unlucky. _____
- If two wrongs don’t make a right, in today’s politics it is appropriate to try three. _____
- 81% of American schools are below average. _____
Send your answers to me at michael@swickard.com and I will compile them to see how each item was believed. Then we can look at the results of the election and come up with some connections. That will be fun and informative.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.
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