Calling Them on It
I recently finished the #1 nonfiction bestseller in America: Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Salon excerpt, Oliver Willis’ review). And the book is awesome. It’s funny, honest, and well-researched. I’m sure it will come in for a coordinated smear campaign from the right, though the pre-emptive strike by Fox only seems to have helped sales, so maybe they’ll figure out that ignoring it would be a better policy. Heh. Which I’m sure will drive some people (like Bill O’Reilly) crazy.
But anyway, it’s a great book. I’m going to fair-use some of the conclusion, because it sums up the book’s underlying message nicely, and ties in with something I wanted to say:
Yes, I’m a liberal, and I’m proud of it. It’s a term we need to reclaim. Because I believe most Americans are liberals just like me. Most Americans believe in helping people. And most Americans believe that the government has a role to play — to create opportunity, to protect the environment, to provide for the common good.
We are the country, but they control it. Only 7 percent of Americans say they want to weaken environmental regulations. But the 7 percent are in charge.
How do we get it back? We have to fight. But we can’t fight like they do. People say that Rush and Fox and their ilk are popular because they’re entertaining. And if you can stomach that stuff, I suppose they are. But a part of their entertainment value comes from their willingness to lie and distort. They fight with lies.
We can’t do that. We have to fight them with the truth. Our added entertainment value will have to come from being funny and attractive. And passionate. And idealistic. But also smart. And not milquetoast-y. We’ve got to be willing to throw their lies in their face.
He’s right. If we don’t, the liars will be happy to take as much slack as we’re willing to give them. Like Ann Coulter’s comment the other day, mentioned by Adam with the link text Scheming psychotic monster. Or like Dick Cheney on Meet the Press last Sunday (nicely debunked by this article from the Boston Globe: Cheney link of Iraq, 9/11 challenged).
We have to be willing to call them on it. And we have to play fair — but we don’t have to let them use our willingness to be open-minded against us. For example, we don’t always have to adhere to self-imposed “fairness” guidelines involving equal time and civil discourse that the other side routinely violates. Sure, we should be polite when it’s warranted. And not when it’s not. But we decide who deserves which kind of treatment, and how much of it.
I’ve been thinking about this in connection with some of the responses I’ve received to a comment I made on Donald Sensing’s One Hand Clapping weblog (see the original post, Osama bin Laden’s strategic plan, and my comments here, here, and here).
Donald Sensing had a distinguished career as an Army officer, and is now an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. He’s informed, articulate, and under normal circumstances he displays a high degree of honor and integrity. But if he posts bullshit, I’m going to call him on it. And I kinda think he did in this case. Maybe I’m wrong. If it turns out I am, I’ll apologize. But by my standards, the tone I’ve used is appropriate.
Update: Heh. New record for the elapsed time between my asserting a willingness to apologize if something occurs, and my issuing said apology. Well, not quite that apology, but close enough. Later update: Subsequent post by Donald Sensing, and ensuing discussion, including an apology for reals.
