I have to admit to being totally burned
out in regards to the political ads running on TV. The truth
contained in these ads, or in this case, partial facts masquerading
as truth, has been far too 'flexible'.
Here in New Hampshire I have seen
claims made about opposing candidates, citing publications, studies,
or records of votes on certain legislation in small print at the
bottom of the screen as if they lend a certain legitimacy to the
claims made.
However, on more than one occasion I
have actually searched for those articles, studies, and records, only
to find that the cites referenced did not accurately reflect the
claims made. In too many cases only partial quotes were used, the
excerpts being edited in such a way to make them seem to say one
thing when if the cite were read in its entirety the true meaning is
revealed and the edited versions is proven to be false.
One of the favorite devices used by
both sides is to claim candidate X voted for/against some piece of
legislation that would have provided Y for the needy or given Z to
the greedy. But when you look closer at the legislation cited you
find that Y or Z were part of a larger bill that was seriously flawed
or the portion of the legislation that supposedly was going to
provide Y or Z had deficiencies that would not have provided Y or Z,
at least not to the people for whom it was intended, or would have
caused harm in ways not foreseen by the sponsors, or would have
wasted millions on something that wouldn't work.
In New Hampshire and neighboring
Massachusetts, I have to give the edge in misleading or creatively
edited 'facts' to the Democrats. Over the past couple of weeks I have
dug into the claims made by Democrat and Republican ads for state and
federal offices and the ads run by Democrats have been far more
deceptive and misleading than those run by Republicans.
Keep in mind that my study is by no
means scientific. I cannot claim that bias has not crept in (though I
tried very hard to keep my biases in check). I haven't looked at
every campaign ad and researched their veracity. If I did that I
would have to quit my job and stop sleeping. I have better things to
do with my life. But during this campaign cycle I've found the
Democrats to be much looser with the truth than the Republicans, by a
factor of almost three-to-one.
How is it anyone can trust any of these
folks when the willingness to use bits of the truth to create
falsehoods is widespread? Once they gain office how will we know they
won't use the same mechanism to lie to their constituents about bills
they're proposing and causes they're supporting?
We don't, and that's the problem.