The Facts Fall On Hard Times ; Truth in Politics Becomes Elusive and Illusory

Summary

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In the 1950s, the phrase "the facts ma'am, just the facts" was the recurring plea of television character Sgt. Joe Friday on the hit series "Dragnet." The line became famous, underlying a public sentiment then that fact and truth were inseparable, despite the occasional outrages of a Joe McCarthy. But that was a long time ago.

In the poisonous political atmosphere that shrouds debate in Washington today, facts have fallen on harder times. Either they are noticeably missing in action or tortured and bent to tell a "truth" based on preconceived or preferred notions of a world as it might be, not as it is. From Social Security to tax reform and from the size of pension fund liabilities to what we are actually spending on the global war on terror, getting "just the facts ma'am" and therefore the truth is elusive and often illusory. Ask President Bush and those who believed Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

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Extract

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The Facts Fall On Hard Times ; Truth in Politics Becomes Elusive and Illusory

Several disparate yet relevant stories suggest the fate of facts in contemporary politics and reinforce these points: (a) getting the facts right doesn't always count; (b) getting the facts wrong doesn't ...

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