This week I want to talk about political blogs, blogging, and bloggers. If you’re a regular listener to this great radio station there’s a good chance that you know what a blog is. In fact, if you’re a regular listener to this radio station there’s a better chance that you’ve ever heard the word blog than you’ve ever heard the word “win” in any sentence connected to USU football.
But before we talk blogs, I need to ask you a question: Are you a liar? Seriously, I’m asking you: Are you a liar? Have you ever told a lie? Sure you have. We all have. I’ve lied, I’ll admit it. And so, would it be fair of you to introduce me to your neighbor and say, “Look, I don’t know much about this Mero guy except he’s an admitted liar.” Would that be fair to me? You’re telling the truth aren’t you? I said that I’ve lied in my life. So what’s wrong with you introducing me as an “admitted liar” to your neighbor? Hold that thought.
One of my favorite people in Utah is a man named Quinn McKay. Despite the fact that Quinn has been associated with the University of Utah for years, he’s a great guy to have around. You see, Quinn teaches, writes, and lectures about honesty and integrity. I learned that whole “admitted liar” thing from Quinn. You can see how spending a day with him would drive you crazy.
Quinn teaches that most of us really don’t know what honesty is. He says we’re very good at speaking in platitudes about honesty – he calls it “prattle” – but that we’re very bad at being truly honest people. In fact, the central theme of Quinn’s teachings is that a truly honest life is difficult to live and that its greatest difficulty falls upon us when we face situations calling us to be loyal to people we care about, even love. If you’re married, you instantly know what I mean. “Honey, does this dress make me look fat?”
Honesty and loyalty – two of our most cherished virtues – are in constant conflict within most of us. And this is especially true as it pertains to blogs and politics.
Because political bloggers fancy themselves to be modern-day muckrakers, they prize honesty. They prize the truth. They believe their job is to uncover wrongdoing, corruption, hypocrisy, and lies. But these same bloggers face a serious ethical dilemma when they’re also partisan supporters of political candidates. This is where honesty and loyalty collide. This is where lies, damn lies, and blogging begin to corrupt the very American institutions bloggers claim to be protecting from corruption. They will lie to save us from liars.
A recent post on a muckraking liberal blog called Crooks and Liars was titled, “How to Brand McCain and Palin as Liars.” (September 13, 2008) And right-wing and Republican blogs aren’t any better.
It’s not easy sorting through the rubble of lies, and an unaccountable and often anonymous blogosphere doesn’t make it any easier. The best solution would be for partisan blogs to be self-critical and introspective. This isn’t a novel idea. Every political party hires its own people to unearth skeletons from the closets of its own candidates. In polite circles this process is known as vetting. The problem with self-righteous partisan bloggers is that they no longer vet their own heroes.
I recently asked my friend Quinn McKay for the best definition he has found for honesty. His answer comes from famed author Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote, “To tell the truth, rightly understood, is not just to state true facts, but to convey a true impression.”
Quinn added, “The idea that truth has not been told until the correct impression is conveyed may, for many, seem to be a very high – or even impossible – standard.” Perhaps my friend is right. But without some sort of broadly agreed-upon working definition of honesty, we’ll be stuck with more of the same – charges of lying, deceit, and hypocrisy – instead of constructive, civil debate.
