It’s past time to tell it like it is
9th August 2021 · 0 Comments
Mainstream media finally found the courage in 2020 to call out Donald Trump Sr.’s lies. Political pundits took Trump to task for the “Big Lie,” he continues to tell today, that he won the election in a “landslide.” The Washington Post estimates that Trump said at least 30,000 lies while in the White House.
There’s no denying that Trump is a pathological liar, but more ominous than his alleged free speech is Trump’s motivation for spouting the “Big Lie.” The Big Lie is the rationale for Trump’s effort to overthrow the U.S. government and take back power.
Republicans know that they are at risk of never winning a substantial number of congressional seats ever again. Today’s electorate of progressives, young people and educated voters isn’t down for the foolishness, the deception, the grift or the lies. They see through Republicans who are more interested in power than governing.
We are witnessing, in real-time, Republicans with their hair on fire, passing voter suppression laws that allow them to take control of election boards and position themselves to declare any election invalid if they lose. We see them using the levers of legislative power to disenfranchise Black and brown voters, using every trick in the book, especially gerrymandered districts to keep the minority party in control.
They are following the Afrikaans’ Apartheid playbook. In 1910, South Africa became a single country under white rule. For decades, racist laws enshrining white supremacy controlled the country’s Black majority. From 1948 through the 1990s, a single word dominated life in South Africa. Apartheid – Afrikaans for “apartness” – kept the country’s majority Black population under the thumb of a small white minority.
America is predominately white, but change is coming. Based on Census projections, “The U.S. will become ‘minority white by 2045,’” the Brookings Institute reported.
Political analysts are finally coming to terms with Trump’s plan to kill democracy, and they are raising red flags on national television about losing the democratic republic that is America.
Still, the innocuous linguistics used by some in the media downplay the reality of the threat to Americans’ right to choose who will represent them, rather than officials selecting the people they want to represent. Using nice words ignores the brutal truth. Words like “disinformation,” “misinformation,” and “intent” allow people to escape accountability for nefarious actions.
It’s time to; as we say in New Orleans, tell it like it is. The media should call a spade a spade for clarity’s sake, for truth, and accountability.
Disinformation and misinformation are similar in execution but are not technically the same.
Misinformation refers to false or out-of-context information that is presented as fact regardless of intent to deceive. Disinformation is a type of misinformation that is intentionally false and intended to deceive or mislead. Both misinformation and disinformation involve the sharing of bad or debunked information with varying intents and purposes.
Business Insider suggests that being a critical consumer of the news means understanding and identifying misinformation.
Linguistics aside, disinformation and misinformation are messaging tactics based on lies, full stop. The media should recognize this and stop playing into the hands of messengers who purposefully push lies to achieve the ends they or their clients desire, including politicians and social media posters that spread disinformation about medical measures to contain the deadly coronavirus.
When Trump told an aide to ask Rosen to go public with a statement that the election was “corrupt,” that message was not disinformation or misinformation. It was a blatant lie. Reporters failed to say that Trump abused his presidential power by strong-arming aides and positioning them to spread lies to whip up his base.
Trump’s base may be a lot of things, violent, racist, and white privileged, but they are not stupid. They know what’s going on. They know Trump lies, but they embrace him because he perpetuates the myth that they are superior, smart, and patriotic.
Truthfully, Trump should be sitting in jail for inciting the January 6 insurrection, and Rudy Guiliani and Congressman ‘taking names and kicking ass’ Mo Brooks should be his cellmates.
Politicians who utter the “Big Lie,” as justification for punitive laws to make it harder for Black and brown people to vote must be accountable, too. They are violating the 15th Amendment right in front of our faces. Where is the media outcry for all of these lawbreakers? Why don’t media and political pundits call them out for violating the rule of law?
Could it be that white Americans are reluctant to hold other whites accountable?
That includes the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. All we’re hearing is that representatives want to get to the bottom of who was involved in planning and orchestrating the insurrection and taking measures (security) so that it doesn’t happen again.
And?
When asked what will happen if the Committee finds Trump and Congressional Republicans conspired to incite the January 6 riot and stop Congress from certifying the electoral vote, call for martial law, and keep Trump in the White House, Congressman Adam Schiff dodged the question. He spoke only about the Committee’s intent to publish a report.
Will the Department of Justice find the will to prosecute Trump and his allies for the conspiracy, sedition, and treason they committed to overthrowing the U.S. government?
Treason is “the highest of all crimes” – defined as intentionally betraying one’s allegiance by levying war against the government or giving aid or comfort to its enemies.
Sedition is also a federal crime. While the crime of treason requires action, sedition is any conspiracy to overthrow, put down, or destroy by force the government of the United States. This includes preventing, hindering, or delaying the execution of any law of the United States or seizing, taking, or possessing any property of the United States.
To let Trump tell it, he was only exercising his free speech rights.
But when Trump met with Republicans before January 6 and called people to “march to the capitol,” and “fight like hell,” and considering Trump’s attempts to overturn election results in Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan, can there be any doubt that he is guilty of sedition and treason? Or that his actions went much further than free speech?
The media must now delineate free speech vs. yelling fire in a crowded theater. Free speech has limits, and Americans need truth and brutal honesty, and transparency from the media.
Now is not the time for soft-spoken, polite descriptions of the heinous acts of so-called “conservatives.” Their lies are killing people and obstructing justice. It’s time to speak truth to power in plain English.
This article originally published in the August 9, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
