Would you please quit checking my facts?
Issue #739 The Choice, Thursday, October 3, 2024
Please share and subscribe to help us grow this publication.
If you like us, REALLY like us, please click the “Like” button at the end of this post!
We appreciate your support!
The most notable thing Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance said at Tuesday night’s debate was the following:
"The rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check.”
Because when you take away their lies, you take away their entire campaign.
This amusing remark was made in response to debate co-moderator Margaret Brennan, who apparently broke the rules when she corrected Vance’s repeated lie about the threat of migrants in Springfield, Ohio, whom Trump accused of eating dogs and cats during his crash-and-burn debate performance a few weeks ago.
Note that Vance did not accuse Brennan of being incorrect in her correction; it was only that she had the audacity to correct him when the rules said she was supposed to let him tell all the lies he wanted. Because according to the rules, only Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz was supposed to have the ability to correct Vance, and vice versa.
The obvious problem with this arrangement was that if Vance had engaged in the same dizzying pace of rapid-fire lying as Trump, Walz would not have had time to sufficiently answer any of the debate questions because all his time would have been spent swatting down lies. And not only that, but one candidate “correcting” another does not qualify as a legitimate fact check. Not even if one candidate is immeasurably more believable than the other. All it shows is that one candidate swears the other candidate is lying. Whoopee. Fortunately (?), Vance only lied a whole lot, not a really really whole lot, which was somewhat manageable. But you still see how perverse that sounds, right?
These debate rules, which again reflected a media terrified of angering Trump and Trumpers, were insisted upon by the Trump/Vance camp after the Harris/Trump debate when the moderators remembered they were journalists and oh shit why did they have to do that? Because as actual journalists they had the responsibility to set the record straight for the sake of the viewers. Kinda like their job. Although they couldn’t possibly have corrected every lie without shutting down the debate and turning off the lights, they at least made a point of calling Trump out on his most egregious utterances. The Trump camp thought this was totally unfair because it prevented their candidate from doing what he does best so they screamed and stomped their feet in protest until they got their way. And the network caved. Because of course they did.
Because what if Trump wins the election and he holds a grudge at us because you know he will and then he’ll be mad at us for that time we wouldn’t let him tell all of his lies uninterrupted and then we won’t be able to interview him so he can tell us more lies? What will we do then?
Yeah. Such a dilemma. But the dilemma is for the rest of us, not those in the media who feel they have an obligation to enable Trump and Vance by caving and reporting every insane made-for-news insanity they manufacture for mass consumption while simultaneously not requiring any form of real accountability. The kind of accountability they required of President Joe Biden and are now demanding of Vice President Kamala Harris. The result, as we get closer and closer to E-Day, is that we are becoming increasingly bombarded by a Hurricane Helene-level torrent of lies, distortions, and other assorted bullshit that most regular everyday people don’t have the resources – or the patience – to sift through or filter. Because it is never ending. Which is the Republican strategy, to just bury us all in so much filth and garbage that we won’t have the strength to dig ourselves out on November and find our way to a voting booth. Or won’t bother mailing in our ballots, or making the trip to drop them off however far away we now have to go.
"The rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check.”
That was then. This is now. And right now the only fact that matters is what happens to us if we let that strategy win.