Lies, Damned Lies, & the News
There's good news & there's bad news. The bad news is that I would have lost my $10,000 bet to Mitt Romney because of the good news: All of this weekend's This American Life is dedicated to clearing up the lies they broadcast about Apple, Foxconn, & production in the People's Republic of China in a much-heralded episode aired in January. (Fortunately, my best with Governor Romney was hypothetical, & I shan't be compelled to enter indentured servitude to work off the debt.) Ira Glass was forthright & earnest, saying that he & his staff had "screwed up" in not adequately fact-checking the story before putting it on air. Glass was endlessly frustrated with the ne'er-do-well actor-cum-reporter who had perpetrated the deception, refusing the accept the scoundrel's self-serving, absurd justification that his lies were true "in the theatrical sense." There's no way to put this that doesn't sound ridiculously self-important, so I'll just eat that accusation: I was satisfied. It would have been useful for the audience to be given a greater understanding of the factors that lead to the screw up. What were the factors that lead Glass & co. to accept a terminally-flawed fact-checking process? Was there an eagerness to believe the worst about a large American corporation & did this lead to the subordination of standard journalistic practice? It would have been useful for this sort of soul-searching to have been presented to the audience, but of far greater importance is that this searing introspection take place, even if only behind the scenes of This American Life.

As is always the case when a reporting organization owns up to its mistakes, far more ears heard the lie than will hear the correction. The damage has been done, & no matter what mighty efforts Glass or others undertake there is a percentage of the populous, either through gullibility or malice, who will continue to believe the lies that This American Life originally proudly proclaimed as truths. My intention is not to pile on, not to castigate Ira Glass & his staff, but to remind one & all of the terrible responsibility borne by those who enter the public sphere as reporters, our culture's tribunes, & the dreadful consequences that result when those tribunes manifestly fail to act responsibly.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
No Doubt, "Sad For Me" from No Doubt (T.L.A.M.)