Never ever let the truth interfere with a good story

Or the corollary … nothing screws up a good story like an eyewitness.

These lines used to be funny and silly principles of story telling by hunters and other assemblies of men and women around camp fires or mess halls or domestic parties or sorority group-think.

Now they have become much more serious. The old (80’s) Julie Brown song “The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” has become reality to our schools all too often. The trend is what is alarming. After all, exaggerations and story telling and stretching the truth have been around forever. Isn’t that what Hollywood is based on? Even most people accept “politicians lying” as a redundant term if there ever was one.

The trend that is both emerging and is most alarming is making up stories, as in lying. The idea of a responsible journalist making up composite characters from “stories” may be a lofty principle from the journalistic academic ivory towers, but in the real world the idea has been abused to the point of lying to advance an opinion of the journalist or their editor. Or the corollary also applies, that is that of the eyewitness, who can also mess up or corroborate the story. Here there is a gap that people like John Kerry or “Scott Thomas” can exploit for their own personal reasons.

The trend seems worse when observing Senator Reid from Nevada. And he is only an example. He can make the most outrageous statements and accusations, and there is seldom a peep out of our media. Is the reason group-think, political, or just plain ignorance? Perhaps it is some of each, depending on the journalist or editor, and the politician? In all cases, it seems the parents who paid for all this college education may have been ripped off. And also in all cases, there are few or none who will uphold standards these days. Hence, Reid’s apparent criminal behavior over his land deals is not even being looked at by the Senate’s Ethics Committee. Talk about the fox guarding the chicken coop.

Another possibility exists. The trend of lying could simply be the cross culture pollinization of eastern and western values, where in the east the “art” of duplicity is well respected. In this world, the westerner will always come out second best these days. But the trend here in the west is not this, but a cultural change in the value of honesty and telling the truth, as painful as it often is.

Another possibility also exists. Can those who read and write so well, and get paid for it by their sponsors, actually be believed as having experience and expertise in that which they publish about? Can we be smooth-talked by pundits? Can we be smooth-talked by politicians seeking our vote? Can the status quo presented to we citizens about the two choices between republicans and democrats be our only choice?

Now more than ever one must take every thing they hear and read using common sense and “with a grain of salt”. And when the opportunity comes, register and vote.