I wonder if it's the most taboo word in journalism.
The L-word. Nope, not Love. Not even Liberal.
LIAR.
Take a look at the tap-dancing that happened at a panel of Wisconsin journalists the other night, talking about reporting on Governor Scott Walker.
Scott Walker and ‘The L Word’ (The Progressive, 2 June 2015)
DeFour, at a panel discussion Monday night, was responding to audience questions about the Wisconsin governor and Presidential aspirant’s record of saying things that aren’t true. He used an analogy, involving a media description of Walker holding a blowtorch and working with metal. “Are you looking for us to say, ‘Oh, he’s a welder?’ ” DeFour asked. “I don’t think you’re ever going to see the newspaper call him a straight-out welder. We’re not going to be like, ‘Governor Walker, he’s a giant welder.’ We’re not going to do that.”
Question: when does refusing to use the one word that best describes the subject of your story become... oh, I don't know... a LIE?
More below the orange web of lies and deceit.
The Wisconsin press is well aware that Walker is marketing himself on the not-yet-declared presidential trail (a lie in itself, we all know he's running) as an honest player, a straight shooter, someone who says what he'll do and does it. His audience is lapping it up, and the oh-so-measured articles pointing out "inconsistencies" are not breaking through.
For example, a piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the other week, "Behind Scott Walker's claim of doing what he says, a record of dropping bombshells."
Let's count euphemisms as the piece squirms and wriggles to avoid the L-word.
There's a snag in how Walker portrays himself.
He misled people.
He didn't campaign on what he actually did.
Even the fact-checker outfits use euphemisms.
PolitiFact says "Pants on Fire"... but sidesteps the "Liar, Liar" that precedes it.
Washington Post awards "Pinocchios" but doesn't use the L-word.
Again from the article in The Progressive:
DeFour, in discussing Walker’s track record on honesty, said he was surprised when he spoke to people in other states—who “don’t know Governor Walker as well as people in this room, people in Wisconsin”—say they support Walker because “they think he’s an honest person.”
The audience broke into laughter. “I was expecting that kind of reaction from this room,” DeFour continued. “I think your expectation, maybe everyone’s expectation, is that when I’m at these events and I’m talking to people, when somebody says, ‘You know, I really like how honest this guy is,’ I think your expectation is that [I should say], ‘Actually, he’s a welder.’ [And] I don’t think that’s my responsibility.”
Let it sink in, folks.
I don't think that's my responsibility.
How deeply does this reticence to outright truth-telling run?
The very article that reveals this refusal of responsibility -- does so with an approving nod. And the article itself, in The Progressive no less:
Never once uses the word LIAR.
I ask again: when does refusing to use the one word that best describes the subject of your story become, in every sense that matters, a LIE?