Posted on 02/07/2015 6:30:43 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo
Lying used to be an offense that caused people to stop trusting and believing you. Now, it’s a “mistake” that’s to be weighed against the liar’s virtues before deciding if he is to be trusted.
I noticed this in my law practice. When I first started out, you hit the litigation jackpot if you could show that the opposing party had lied about any semi-material fact. If you showed this in the pre-trial stages, opposing counsel usually would settle the case for peanuts. If you showed it during trial, the judge or the jury would slam the lying party.
As time went on, I noticed that judges and juries were less impressed by a showing that a party lied. To take but one example, in my last trial, a case I handled for a friend last year, the judge (who was generally excellent and who decided the merits in our favor) was dismissive of evidence that demonstrated dishonesty by the opposing party.
The turning point, I think, was the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky matter. President Clinton was revealed to have lied under oath in a legal proceeding. But most people considered him a good president and the lie was about a private, sensitive matter, his sex life. Thus, Clinton was able to ride out the storm (though he later lost his law license).
It was understandable that people who liked the Clinton presidency didn’t want it terminated over a lie, even one made under oath. But the forgiving of Clinton seems to have had a spillover effect.
In 2001, the rabbi of our synagogue was accused of misappropriating funds. Arguing in favor of retaining the rabbi, Dennis Ross, then a member of the congregation, noted that the rabbi had been delivering great, passionate sermons ever since the allegations of wrongdoing surfaced.
Whatever may be true of a U.S. president, dishonest behavior, one would have thought, trumps quality sermons in a spiritual leader. One would also think that making up events trumps all other qualities in a television news presenter.
But righteous behavior may not be central to the true job description of a “spiritual leader” in ultra-liberal Bethesda, Maryland (though in fairness, this particular rabbi lost his job). Saying the right things and putting on a good show may count for more.
Similarly, honest reporting of events may not be central to the true job description of a network news anchor. In the view of the networks that employ them, the anchorman’s job may have more to do with being a calming presence, someone you want to invite into your home.
Bill O’Reilly tells us that Brian Williams “is not a bad guy.” Jonah Goldberg says that if Williams were his friend, he wouldn’t end the friendship just because Williams falsely claimed he came under attack in Iraq.
I have no reason to disagree with O’Reilly and I tend to agree with Goldberg. But their statements have no bearing on whether Williams should retain his job as presenter of the news.
Lying isn’t what it used to be. And if Williams keeps his job, lying isn’t much of anything at all.
I attribute this in part to BJ Clinton and the emedia that abetted his lies.
“abetted”
Is that another word for “cheered, wildly”?
What do you have if your word means nothing?
Why would anyone trust you if they know you lie?
How can an agreement mean anything?
So sad to watch the value of honesty dissolve. A culture that permits that cannot last.
I grew up in the 40/50’s and still will NOT call someone a liar unless I really mean it.
It was kind of instilled in us that a liar was lower than whale $hiite and that kind of stuck with me.
This Williams clown, were he a man, he would RESIGN. Then again, I said if he were a MAN.
Guess two of the last ‘real Men’ would have been Richard Nixon and Bob Dole.
Nixon resigned for whatever reason BUT it saved the country from an embarrassing experience, which would have been more damaging in the mid 60’s than Clintons Folly in the 90s.
Dole resigned his seat in the Senate when he was selected to be the Presidential Candidate (which I feel they all should do - IF they are serious about being the Candidate).
These days lying is nothing!
It just seems more and more that the Father Of Lies is making his move. I see Satan everywhere these days.
Lying is no big deal?
That tells me a lot about how close we are the End Times.
My youngest son was a teenager during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.
I knew that the country was in trouble when out of the clear blue sky while talking about it, he said “come on Mom, everybody lies”.
I asked why he thought that and he told me that people were always saying that on TV. LOL
Wake up! Snap out of it!
The turning point was Johnathan Gruber, who showed how Obama planned to lie to get ObamaCare passed. It showed how lying is now a tool of the Left to get what they want.
Brian Williams' mistake was to think that he was part of the circle that would be given a pass for it.
If you want to take it back to Clinton, look into the various quid pro quo investigations that he was eventually cleared of. Those were all payoffs for political deals that everyone knew about but couldn't trace to the Oval Office in a way that would stand up in court.
Credit Clinton with the new scandal "low bar:" if it can't stand up in Court, then it's Okay,
But make no mistake: it's Obama that lies about EVERYTHING, and hides behind the petty ties of others to justify it.
-PJ
“Lying” is such a harsh word.
Misremembering is MUCH more palatable. Just like misspoke. Just a slight error, a slip of the tongue, nothing to worry about.
Brian Williams makes $10 million a year to read the news for a few minutes at night during the broadcast. I’m sure they can find lots of liars willing to do that for twenty thousand a year....
Lies don’t mean anything anymore because, like the man said, the American people are stupid. Half don’t care because they are living the lie of the welfare system.
I agree with Stephen Covey that there is no honesty/morality switch that someone can just turn on when they get to work. You can’t be a lying piece of crap at home and then be an angel at the office.
The entire political establishment has been composed of liars for decades. And by this I don’t mean to adopt the POSE of non-political people, who justify their apathy in the face of corruption by saying “They all do it.” Tacit conclusion: “Therefore, I am excused from being informed, making judgments, etc.”
The entire Democrat party has been lying about the abortion holocaust for over 40 years. Most Republicans have repeated the lie, “There are good people on both sides of this issue.” No, there are not. ALL pro-abortion people are wicked and dishonest, and have no business being in any public office.
The great quantum leap in dishonesty, of course, occurred during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, not to mention the leap in the number of six-year-olds who became aware of what fellatio is. All doctors, psychologists, etc., know that the practice of fellatio EXPLODED among pre-teens and teens, and has not abated.
The corruption of the current political class is unprecedented, and is inexpressibly deep.
These attitudes, of course, have filtered throughout society.
The vast majority of Catholic bishops insist on giving Communion to pro-abortion politicians, despite the fact that consulting ANY manual of moral theology would tell them that doing so is a mortal sin.
No one is Washington was deceived by the crudely forged “birth certificate.” Its purpose was not to deceive anyone. Its purpose was to give those who wish to participate in the lie an object they could PRETEND to believe in. Public professions of belief in the lie are the ticket to “respectability” and prosperity. Totalitarians have always used obvious lies in order to hammer home the fact that their sheer POWER, not the truth, is what really matters.
Our society has become so deeply corrupt that almost no one who has anything to lose in the way of career, income, or “respectability” (Rush, Mark, Sean) will speak the truth.
Uh, ya. Abetted: to encourage or assist (someone) to do something wrong, in particular, to commit a crime or other offense:
“he was not guilty of murder but was guilty of aiding and abetting others”
synonyms: assist · aid · help · lend a hand to · support · back · encourage. :-)
;-)
Liberals accuse President Bush of lying about WMD’s in Iraq.
My response is, IF he was lying about them, we would have found them the very first Day of the War. Needless to say, they get a bit flummoxed when I give them that response.
Yes I know, they seem to ignore Bill Clinton insisting Saddam had WMD’s back in 1998, but Bill IS a proven Liar after all.
Yeah, it all depends on whose ox is being gored.
Goldberg and Ted Baxter never wore the soldier’s uniform. Therefore they forgive Williams’ lie.
I think it was that gifted Jurist Judith Sheindlin that said “if you tell the truth, you don’t have to have a good memory”. She is my third favorite Democrat.
Mark Twain said, “if you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
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