Pundit Rule #1 -- If The Truth Don't Work... Make It Up

Did you ever wonder how the pundits of talk radio got so smart? Stop wondering. They aren't.

Dictionary.com defines a pundit as "a learned person, expert, or authority." No where does it say they must be "honest." The level of factual content fights a never ending battle with the level of integrity for the bottom rung in the import of punditry

The top of the chart is always certainty. Sounding like you know what you're talking about far outweighs what it is you are talking about.

Rush Limbaugh pulls in the top spot with about 15 million dittoheads, most of which will admit that they needn't listen watch or read anything but El Rushbo for their information. And what information do they get? Rush claims that if you look at the legislative record of Barack Obama, "you won't find a Senate bill with his name on it," and that "He's never reached across the aisle as a senator in legislation."

Of course, when he says "if you look at the legislative record" he's depending on the fact that his fandom didn't. Because, if they did they'd find that Obama was a key co-sponsor of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act with the bill's primary sponsor, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (OK). Coburn himself referred to the legislation as the "Coburn-Obama Bill." *

Wow. Debunking complete in one bill.

Oversight? Negligence? Honest mistake? Cha.

If it were his only bill participation or the only time he "reached across the aisle, perhaps. But Obama also worked with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar (IN) to produce the "Lugar-Obama proliferation and threat reduction initiative," which President Bush signed into law. And four of the twelve co-sponsors of Obama's bill (S.2125) to "promote relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo" were Republicans: Sam Brownback (KS), Susan Collins (ME), Mike DeWine (OH), and James Inhofe (OK). President Bush signed the bill into law.*

It's how pundits roll. Having access to the facts doesn't call for them to share them. At least the part of them that doesn't push their particular agenda.

Fox News contributor Dick Morris, who worked for Bill Clinton, now works as a Fox News contributor where he shows up almost daily as the Clinton basher extraordinaire. This past week, referring to her appearance on the Today Show, he wrote that Hillary Clinton said, "Chelsea [Clinton] was jogging around the World Trade Center on 9/11 and happened to duck into a coffee shop when the airplanes hit. She said that this move saved Chelsea's life."

Yeah.

Except she never said that.

It's not that Morris didn't have access to a number of Hillary "misspeaks," but why choose one she never made? Easy. 9-11 and a Hillary lie tied together is gold on the Right. And that's exactly why Limbaugh suggested his listeners register as Democrats to vote for Hillary -- the Republican choice -- in the primary. Was his concern to drive democracy or bulldoze it into the ground? You be the judge.

Bill O'Reilly smacked John Edwards around on a daily basis, taking him to task for saying that 200,000 veterans were homeless. The fact that those are the Veterans Administration's numbers brought about an O'Reilly clarification that 80% were homeless because of non-economic situations. Not that Bill mentioned it, but that meant that 20,000 veterans were homeless because of economic reasons.. It didn't stop O'Reilly from continuing to ridicule Edwards for his comments or that what Edwards said was far closer to the facts than Bill. See, the facts aren't important in punditry. Only ratings, revenue and book sales are.

You don't have stay long on a radio signal or Google past the first page to find soundbites and transcripts from Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Michael Savage and the skillion other broadcast Lords of Loud playing fast and loose with the truth.

Of course, distortions of the truth aren't sole property of the Right.

Short of him finding a cure for AIDs and Cancer -- combined, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd aren't going to spend much time mentioning anything positive from George Bush.

Referring to a Jake Tapper (ABC News) claim that a Democratic official said the only way to win was "the Tonya Harding option" -- kneecapping Obama, both referred to the THO as something Hillary was actually considering. Still, being that Fox News buries the competition and the Times is going out of business (ask Bill O'Reilly about both) and the Right owns talk radio lock, stock and bias, the so-called infotainment punditry is basically the Right knocking the Left. It's all about creating a counterfeit truth -- one made up of portions of the facts -- and if truth be know, anything less than the entire truth is no truth at all.

The major problem is that their audiences buy it as the entire truth

Oh, they all sound sincere. But sounding sincere doesn't make anything less a lie. Actual patriotism, integrity, democracy and the truth all take a seat at the back of the campaign bus when it comes to talk radio. The ones closest to reality like to say it's only their opinion. But an opinion that a pundit knows is full of fiction isn't an opinion. It's an Oliver Stone movie.

The only way to legitimize talk radio would be to label it with a disclaimer that says it's "a fiction based on actual events."

Talk radio pundits like to speak of how they are their listeners only opportunity to hear what they won't hear in the mainstream media, which to their detriment, could be. But the reality is, their aversion to the whole truth also confirms a mistrust of their audience to handle the truth.

And whether Right or Left, that is nothing less than an insult to integrity...and their fans.

*Senatorial informational was lifted, without permission, from mediamatters.org. Please don't tell them.

Former talk show host, Steve Young, is author of Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" www.greatfailure.com

Comments

[mellene]

Except for the painful commercials on the radio, you've got to admit that it is often far more entertaining than cable network shows.

[CraigR]

No, I don't have to admit that. I find nothing "entertaining" about loudmouth blowhards telling lies. It's bad enough that the politicans do it.

[BigRube]

The way I see it is that all of these so called conservative talk show host hate all Americans. They dictate hatrid too. But it's all about money and they will smear hate and lies for it. Most of these so called conservative talk show host make 10M or more a year. Rush A. Limbaugh has made so much money that he thinks he can now run the country. Well it sure does look like it the way he has screwed up the primarys this year. The bad thing about it is that his brain washed listeners will do anything he tells them to do.

Now Sean A. Hannity listeners call him a Great American. Can anyone out there tell me whats so Great about him? I sure don't see no greatness about him.

Now I don't get to listen to many of the other so called conservative talk show host but they are all in the same idiots club with Rush A. Limbaugh and Sean A. Hannity. The best thing that can ever happen is to get these idiots off the air.

People need to quit listening to these so called conservative talk show host and make their own choice about politics. After all its the American people that run this country not Rush A. Limbaugh or Sean A. Hannity or any of the other so called conservative talk show host.

[kae]

Thank you Steve Young, great job making this point. This is the reason why we have an entire nation that does not have the facts about some very important issues in america. Not just talk-radio pundits but cable news pundits are all guilty of misleading america, whether it is intended OR NOT! There used to be a local news anchor named Hal Fishman here in Los Angeles, every week he would give a commentary, and EVERY WEEK prior to his televised commentary they would state that "The following is the opinion of the commentator only, etc.....". This is what I remember learning as the proper and ethically correct procedure for presenting opinion to news viewers/listeners. Even if you consider yourself a pundit and not a journalist, you are still dispensing 'info' to an audience and cable news pundits dispense this opinion disguised as fact from their shiny 'newscenters' - so stop pretending to be what you are not. You sound like a journalist and you look like one too so in my opinion it is your job to make sure your audience is in on it too. Its time for Americans to start paying attention to the FCC and the job? they are doing. I would like to see disclaimers constantly scrolling below Bill'O's desk while he spews hate to all....you'd think even Faux News would want to admit he does not speak for them.

[JScott]

'Pundit Rule #1 -- If The Truth Don't Work... Make It Up'

Lily Tomlin's Edith Ann said the same thing back on one of Lily Tomlin's first comedy monologue recordings-'Lady I don't tell lies, but the truth can be made up if you know how'

[desmirl]

In a nation that has little or no respect for education and educators, why would you be surprised that Right-wing talk radio works so well? By turning to Rush and Hannity and O'Reilly, people can get their heads full of faux facts without having to do all that awful work of reading and thinking, and can at the same time, brag about their high stations in life, and how they got there without the benefit of education.

[SonnyBono]

"Short of him finding a cure for AIDs and Cancer - combined, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd aren't going to spend much time mentioning anything positive from George Bush." - ok, I'm game - you mention something positive about George W. Bush - I mean other than he can throw a baseball sixty feet six inches without killing a bird on the endangered species list.

Chances are far greater that if Bush does accomplish something positive - other than run a neat Easter egg hunt - Olbermann and Dowd will mention it - you are certainly more likely to get some version of the truth from these two than you will ever get from Rush, O'Reilly and the rest of the rightwing gang.