Lying politicians (and media complicity)
Yesterday over in the UK, David Cameron gave a speech which contained two blatant lies. Firstly he claimed of the company Rolls Royce that “Half the members of its Board started as apprentices.” In fact, to quote the excellent Channel 4 FactCheck blog…
Only one out of the fourteen members of the Rolls-Royce board of directors did an apprenticeship with the company, and that was a sponsored degree rather than a vocational course for a school-leaver.
A lying liar
Now, what irks me most is not those specific lies. It’s the fact that we have come to accept lies and half-truths from our politicians as though they were the most natural thing in the world. There will be no massive scandal about Cameron’s false claim that the Rolls Royce boardroom is half-filled with erstwhile apprentices who worked their way up from the machine room. Indeed, with the exception of a tiny handful of people who read the Channel 4 FactCheck blog, most people will never know the claim is false.
And tomorrow, or next week, he’ll make a speech with yet more self-serving lies and once again they will be accepted as fact.
Because despite the excellent FactCheck blog, the reality is that the media as a whole does a god-awful job of holding our politicians to account. In a sane world, Cameron’s next speech or press conference would be followed by a dozen questions from the floor asking him why he lied in his previous speech. Why he was content to trot out the vile falsehoods of the Daily Mail as though they were fact. Why, in fact, he was comfortable treating the citizens of his country with such naked contempt.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that journalists should be able to identify the lies as they are told. Fact checking takes time. But if they were doing their jobs in an even half-competent manner, they’d hold him to account for the things he says on the next occasion they got to question him. But they don’t. Instead they are actively complicit in those lies… reporting them without ever investigating them.
The first lie made me chuckle, and think ‘sounds about right, for PR man’. The second one made me laugh loudly, but gives me pause to wonder… i mean this guy is running a country. The man is incompetent, amoral and clearly somewhat desperate if such poorly referenced information is the best he can manage.
I am of the opinion that there has been this sort of unhealthy dynamic between the press and politicians for a long time. The fact that journalists are in the end trying to get information out of these folks, which can be denied to them by said power brokers. Press conferences seem to me to be at the heart of this. The single question allowed dynamic for example. I mean, if I were a journalist I wouldn’t waste my one allowed question asking said important person why they lied at their last press conference for fear of becoming ostracised. Tow the line and if your lucky you mind find the odd leak headed your way.
It seems to me that journalists with the required pedantry and dogged determination to pursue the facts to completion are likely weeded out of the job by their lack of success as journalist. I do not suggest a conspiracy as, rather simply that this is the way that game is set up. Clearly there are exceptions, the stalwart efforts of George Monboit come to mind.
Fear of exclusion from the social group is a helluva powerful motivation. I know I would struggle with such judgement calls… actually… I know what would happen to me, I would get fired.
April 25th, 2012 | 10:43pm
by Matthew Gahan
Oh FYI this post comes up third if you google politicians (via google+ i note). Nice work! 🙂
April 25th, 2012 | 10:46pm
by Matthew Gahan