I don’t know if it strikes you this way, but it seems to me there’s an awful lot of high-level lyin’ going on these days.
Some of the stuff I’ve been reading in the papers and online seems blatantly false.
Consider these examples:
Jon S. Corzine, former MF Global chief executive, on whether he authorized the use of customer funds to beef up finances in another division of the company, a major global financial derivatives broker before going bankrupt.
“I never gave any instructions to misuse customer money, never intended to give any instructions or authority to misuse customer funds, and I find it very hard to understand how anyone could misconstrue what I’ve said as a way to misuse customer money.”
***
Joseph Amendola, former assistant Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky’s attorney, describing his client’s waiver of a preliminary hearing as a tactical measure, not an indicator that his client might enter into a plea agreement.
“We’re ready to defend, we’ve always been ready to defend…Today’s waiver has nothing to do with conceding anything. There have been no plea negotiations. There will be no plea negotiations. This is a fight to the death.”
***
James Murdoch, News Corp. executive, on whether he knew about widespread cell-phone hacking at his company’s former News of the World newspaper.
“Any suspicion of wider spread wrongdoing, none of that was mentioned to me.”
…And after being asked about an e-mail, which he responded to, that referenced widespread phone hacking at the paper.
“I did not read the full e-mail chain.”
***
Attorney General Eric Holder on whether he or other higher-ups at the Justice Department knew about the government’s “Fast and Furious” investigation into an Arizona-based gun-trafficking network. (Investigators ended up losing track of hundreds of weapons. Many probably reached Mexico, and two were found near the scene where a Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was killed last December.)
“The notion that somehow or other this thing reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that. … I don’t think is supported by the facts…It’s kind of something I think certain members of Congress would like to see, the notion that somehow or other high-level people in the department were involved. As I said, I don’t think that is going to be shown to be the case — which doesn’t mean that the mistakes were not serious.”
***
Here’s a late addition to our Parade of Prevaricators…
Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer, who recently became the 296th Marine to earn the Medal of Honor for bravery in action in Afghanistan. In a big battle, Meyer claimed to have saved the lives of 13 U.S. service members, leave his vehicle to rescue 24 Afghans and lead a final push to retrieve four dead Americans.
McClatchy correspondent Jonathan S. Landay, who was embedded with Meyer’s unit, set the record straight in a story that ran on the front page of today’s Kansas City Star. According to Landay, Meyer was, indeed, deserving of the Medal of Honor, but he greatly embellished his heroism.
***
I’m not sure any of these guys deserve to be wished a Merry Christmas.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Merry Christmas, maybe not. Fairy Christmas (as in fanciful) yes.
Good job, Jim!
You Said it, Jim…and left out a few choice folks in my opinion. :)
Legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans has a saying; there are three sides to every story, my side, your side, the truth, and no one is lying.
When prison cells and public disgrace are part of the outcome equation the truth takes on the moral flexibility of Bishop Finn at a hot yoga class.
Our collective moral compass hasn’t pointed due north in this country for quite some time. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones but they should keep a lot of Windex around. Our moral failure no longer creates pause for introspection. We are all, after all, keeping up with the Kardasians in our own relativistic way.
The human experiment has failed but we all get to walk away with a perfect attendance trophy.
You’re right up there with Thomas Aquinas on your philosophizing, Smartman…Speaking of the Kardasians, a woman I know reported after a trip to Los Angeles that she had seen one of them (can’t recall which) on the freeway. The K lady had sunglasses on, naturally, but the lady who saw her was convinced. “I know it was her,” she said. Highlight of the trip, I guess.
Thanks Fitz! The nuns that educated me would be proud!
Regarding ethical lapses,one of the local bloggers is reporting that Star entertainment reporter Tim Finn regularly took free drinks from a local entertainment venue. A commenter also posted the Star’s policy on freebies.
Indications are this was a pattern of behavior and not a one time event.
If you were his editor would you spank him or show him the door?
Good question, Smartman. Well, I quit spanking my own kids when our son was about five or so and I thought he’d pushed his older sister (18 months older) down a step or two. (No harm done, just a lot of tears.) I had already warned him not to mess around on the stairs. Boiling over, I took him upstairs and gave him a few hand swats on the butt. After everyone had settled down I did my reporting and found, to my horror, that he had not pushed her; she had slipped and fallen. I started bawling and begged his forgiveness. That was the end of all spankings. (If I was starting as a parent now, I would never consider spanking, with all the research that’s been done showing it’s ineffective.)
So…..spanking Tim would be out. Besides, he and I worked together when I was editing the Wyandotte-Leavenworth Neighborhood News, and he was the designated copy editor.
I wouldn’t fire him, either. A reporter should not accept drinks and food on a regular basis (I could understand a one-time thing — like a big dinner where some big shot was speaking and the reporter was covering the event.) I think I’d just have a one-one-one talk with him and tell him to stop and advise him that if it happened again, it could mark the end of his fine career. Then, I’d have to be ready to back up my words.
Thanks Fitz. Purely as a hypothetical, what if a reporter had been accepting free food and drinks at multiple venues for 5+ years with an annual value of said freebies in the range of $750.00 to $1,000.00?
Does that get one terminated?
I think it would be very hard to document the value of food and drink that a reporter — a reporter on the loose, so to speak — would have run up at “multiple venues for 5+ years.” If I was editor, I certainly wouldn’t put a team of bloodhounds on the case. Again, I’d tell the reporter, “That’s it; no more freebies of any kind. You’re on a short leash, and if you screw up, you’re done.”
One practical reason I wouldn’t fire…He (or she) would not be replaced by upper management. We’d be one more reporter short. Mid-level editors need to think practically in this day and age while, at the same time, insisting on principled behavior. It’s a delicate balancing act.
Dear Jimmycsays,
I take your point, Many people dream of buying new items for personal their own personal use or for the household, but they cannot afford to do so because everything is so expensive. However, some banks and financial institutions offer loans to consumers called “online car title loans.” Borrowers are expected to repay the loan amount within a specified period with interest.
Cheers