Speaking Truthiness To Power
truthiness (noun) 1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" 2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true"
KY3's David Catanese reports that Rep. Joe Wilson (R-You Lying) will speak to the Missouri Republican Assembly in Springfield in early October. In his story, this paragraph really stood out:
[Missouri Republican Assembly president William Scott] Magill said he thinks Wilson violated House rules when he yelled 'You Lie,' but added that Wilson expressed "what a large part of the country is feeling." [emphasis added]
That Wilson violated House rules isn't really up for debate, and it's nice of Magill to acknowledge that fact. More importantly, note that Magill says Wilson expressed what he believes people are "feeling." I understand that a lot of conservatives feel a lot of things about the health care reform bills, but that doesn't make them true. In this case, of course, Wilson's claim was demonstrably false.
Wouldn't it have been appropriate in this story to have pointed about that Wilson's outburst was not factually correct, no matter what Magill feels about it? Or worth pointing out that only 1 in 5 Americans -- not a "large part of the country" -- support Wilson's outburst?
Catanese also notes that Dick Morris will be at the event as well, and it's my personal opinion that Morris is far more offensive character than Wilson. Most recently, Morris has been a leading propagator of both the "death panel" and illegal immigration lies, so there may be ample opportunity for fact-checking before, during and after this meeting. For instance, Morris said this on the Hannity program last month:
The point about these death panels is that if you restrict the amount -- the lifesaving surgeries, and you tell someone, no, you can't have that bypass surgery -- but I'm going to die if I don't have it. Well, here's the grief counselor. That will happen. And whether they fund the grief counselor or the end-of-life counselor or not, the rationing will take place when they tell you, no, you can't have the surgery because we have to give it to a 40-year-old illegal immigrant instead.
Ugly (and false) stuff.
If the Missouri Republican Assembly and Missouri Republican Party choose to embrace men like Wilson and Morris, more power to them. But just because prominent individuals or groups they're swell dudes, that doesn't mean they should get a pass on basic facts.
