Yesterday my daughter and I saw the film "Truth", and it was interesting and pertinent to politics today. First of all, it did delineate the facts of the CBS 60 Minutes piece a few years ago on George Bush's military service. I'd never read about it in detail. Secondly, it clarified the incidents around Dan Rather's retirement and Mary Mapes' firing. It made me sad, because journalism is so discouraged these days that tough stories don't get out. The clout of politicians and CEOs and others suppresses the truth. I've personally felt the 2000 election was compromised by the Supreme Court, and the loser took office by trickery. But the 2004 election looks to have been affected as well, because the story on Bush was squashed, and Kerry's war record was distorted and maligned.
We deserve to get a fuller accounting even if it arrives too late. We also need to make the effort necessary to pursue stories ourselves and demand information. When we give up, there is no incentive for news to fight the Goliaths to get to what happened. So the state of the media is in large part our fault. We'd rather be entertained than informed. Right speech is speaking up when no one else seems to care or accuses you of being left leaning, or biased or unfair. Tell both sides, but tell them completely.
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