Krugman: Lies, Damned Lies, And Elections

[ProSense]

Lies, Damned Lies, And Elections

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Back in 2000, George W. Bush made a discovery of enormous consequence: you could base a whole political campaign on claims that were flatly untrue, like the claim that your big tax cuts for the wealthy went to the middle class, or the claim that diverting Social Security funds into private accounts would strengthen the system’s finances, and reporting would never point this out. That’s when I formulated my doctrine that if Bush said the earth was flat, headlines would read Views Differ on Shape of Planet.

All indications are, however, that Campaign 2012 will make Campaign 2000 look like a model of truthfulness. And all indications are that the press won’t know what to do — or, worse, that they will know what to do, which is act as stenographers and refuse to tell readers and listeners when candidates lie. Because to do otherwise when the parties aren’t equally at fault — and they won’t be — would be “biased”.

This will be true even of those news organizations specifically charged with fact-checking. Yes, they’ll call out some lies — but they’ll also claim that some perfectly reasonable statements are lies, in order to keep their precious balance. This is already happening: as Igor Volsky points out, one of the finalists for Politifact’s Lie of the Year is a Democratic claim — that Republicans want to abolish Medicare — that happens to be entirely true.

This will not be a fun year.

[Electric Monk]

1. K&R

&U&G&M&A&N

[sarcasmo]

2. They want to abolish medicare, social security and anything union related.

[joshcryer]

3. One big difference Krugman: In 2000 the Internet was not practically ubiquitious.

The Blogosphere, Twitter, and other sites are going to completely obliterate those idiot clowns that the GOP has to offer. It's going to be epic.

I'm inclined to believe grantcart's idea that they're going to have some sort of brokered convention.

[drmeow]

4. I had essentially the same thought

The internet did not have the power then that it has now ... which is why the powers that be are fighting SO hard to get rid of net neutrality.

[joshcryer]

6. Even in 2004 it didn't have it, but it's been over a decade, and by the time 2012 rolls around...

...it'll be even more ubiquitous.

2004 ADSL was just being rolled out in New Orleans, I remember it well. I think that it was maybe a year or two old and we were all freaking going nuts about how great it was to be able to download stuff at 1mbps. As it stands now I get 20mbps. There are 10 wifi spots in my apartment building alone. It's really amazing.

[drmeow]

9. As an academic

I've always had higher internet access than your average person but even I only had dial-up in 2001 although my partner at the time had cable which was a BIG deal. By 2003 we were living together and had cable (now DSL) but, again, being academics we were early adopters, so to speak. We were even ahead of the other academics in my immediate family (helps to have a partner who is a geek :))

It boggles my mind how much having the internet has changed things. I just did a budget for a grant proposal and was able to use the internet to find out how much it would cost to take a bus from Kuala Lumpur to Kelantan in Malaysia and to find out that there is no way to take a bus from Kelantan, Malaysia to Pattani, Thailand even though they are less than 150 miles apart ... and it blew my mind that I could find stuff like that out that easily.

The internet is certainly a game changer.

[ProSense]

8. They'll

"The Blogosphere, Twitter, and other sites are going to completely obliterate those idiot clowns that the GOP has to offer. It's going to be epic."

...be really busy. This promises to be an election year with distortions and fear mongering reaching new heights, and it's clear the fact checking organizations are flawed.

[tblue37]

5. They have ALWAYS wanted to abolish Medicare, from its very inception. nt

[Tesha]

7. I wish Krugman were 1) more widely known 2) Far more widely listened-to. (NT)