Letting the sunshine do its work

Sunlight is the best disinfectant, as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote. So what do you do when the light shines on something you’d rather hide? You blow smoke.

Rhetoric necessarily involves emphasizing some facts over others in order to convince an audience. While we may decry this as distorting the truth, it is no easy thing to present the truth evenly in a way that does not distort it on one direction or another. Many would argue it is impossible, that there is no objective truth to distort. But even if there is no uncontestable truth, there are certainly many uncontestable untruths. And far too many of them in recent days have been emanating from the McCain campaign.

Of course both liberal and conservative bloggers have been guilty of spreading lies on the internet, and the media have on several occasions been far too quick to report accusations as fact. Neither candidate could prevent that even if they wanted to. I am relatively certain that McCain does not approve of the repeated use of Obama’s middle name by some conservative bloggers as a ploy to appeal to voters’ Islamophobia. I am equally certain that Obama does not approve of silly photos of Palin in a bikini. But we come to something different when the campaigns themselves lie, actively endorse misstatements, or encourage others to make them.

Let’s be honest, both sides have engaged in some rhetorical stretching of the facts, of drawing conclusions that are not quite supported by the premises. But the scorecard so far is very clear: the McCain camp have been playing fast and loose with the facts more often and more egregiously than Obama.

Luckily we have FactCheck to keep track of these things. Factcheck.org has been brilliant at taking both candidates to task for misstatements and for debunking both the silly rumors and the more understandable misconceptions that have flown around during this election season. It may be impossible to have an arbiter of truth, but they have been the sunlight shining on untruths, which at least clears the air so that we can make informed decisions.

But in a new twist, a recent McCain ad misrepresents the statements of the very people who are there to shed light on misrepresentations. The ad claims that FactCheck denounced Obama’s attacks on Palin as “completely false” and “misleading.” In fact, the statements FactCheck was referring to were not by Obama. FactCheck’s response:

Less Than Honest

With its latest ad, released Sept. 10, the McCain-Palin campaign has altered our message in a fashion we consider less than honest. The ad strives to convey the message that FactCheck.org said "completely false" attacks on Gov. Sarah Palin had come from Sen. Barack Obama. We said no such thing. We have yet to dispute any claim from the Obama campaign about Palin.

So how long before we start hearing that FactCheck itself is biased? Conservative bloggers will certainly go after them, as it plays into their general angst about a liberal media conspiracy. And the McCain campaign itself? The fact that they are willing to abuse FactCheck’s neutrality and distort their findings is extremely disturbing. It’s a bit like smuggling arms in a humanitarian aid convoy – although it might bring short term gain to one side, it endangers something civilized and good that is of equal value to both parties.

It is in all our interests, whether liberal or conservative, to support FactCheck’s mission to keep both sides honest. Let’s not blow smoke, and let the sunshine do its work.