The Problem is: it’s Perfectly Legal for Them to Lie to Us.

This always surprises people: the Courts have ruled that news organizations can tell lies whenever they choose. Freedom of speech, don’tcha know. Jane Akre, an award-winning Journalist, was hired by Fox News affiliate WTVT to be, well, a journalist. You know, someone who reports news.

To Fox’s surprise, she and her team found some news. News that one of Fox’s sponsors did not like at all. So Fox ordered her to put some lies in the broadcast, to keep the sponsors happy and the money rolling in. Ms. Akre refused, on grounds of professional ethics.

Fox then fired her and her husband; they sued, and the court’s ruling, incredibly, made it clear that there was no law requiring that news organizations provide truthful content. None. Nada. Zippo. Zilch. Lies are A-OK for those upon whom we rely for accurate reporting.

That ruling, as we look back, opened the Falsehood Floodgates the rest of the way for politicians and their BFFs in the Infotainment Industry. One may still sue for libel, although it is very hard to win and takes years. One may sue over a false advertisement, but those cases are likewise hard to win and take years as well.

Meanwhile, Fox and their compadres repeat their lies so often in the interim, the lies wind up being believed to be true by a large majority of Americans. A few recent examples: Benghazi, Obama’s birth certificate, and much of the Michael Brown coverage.

This writer loves him some First Amendment, yes he does. However, there is no reason not to be able to require that news providers at least put a label on lies: call ’em “editorials”, or “speculative”, or “unproved”. It would be better to make the lies illegal, but the Roberts court ain’t gonna outlaw lies. Not with the current load of Bushbots and Reaganistas forming the majority, anyway.

So, Gentle Reader, remember that you really CAN’T trust anything you read in the papers or see on the TeeVee. You are being lied to 24/7/365 by at least some of the “news” sources you have heretofore relied upon for information. You’ll have to keep a line open to Snopes, FactCheck, Politifact, and other such sources before you can believe Thing One the newsies tell you.

Because in modern America, it’s legal for rich corporations, “news” outlets and politicians to lie to you whenever they want, about whatever they want, however they want.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Texas Says: We Won’t Discriminate, We Just Want to Rig Elections

And they say it straight out, with no shame at all. The state of Texas is fighting the DOJ, hoping to keep the courts from blocking them from screwing tens of thousands of citizens out of the right to vote. Their “logic” works like this: “We aren’t discriminating against people of color, and never did, really, well, maybe we did a little bit but not all that much,and we willnevereverever do it again. Honest. Pinky swear. But we ARE trying to rig elections so Democrats can’t win”. From the article:

“Shortly after the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act decision, Texas moved to reinstate restrictive voting laws that had previously been blocked by the feds. As far as it’s 2011 redistricting plan goes, the state’s brief argues that’s all in the past, and it was a partisan issue rather than a racial one anyway.

“The redistricting decisions of which DOJ complains were motivated by partisan rather than racial considerations, and the plaintiffs and DOJ have zero evidence to prove the contrary,” the state writes in its brief. “It is perfectly constitutional for a Republican-controlled legislature to make partisan districting decisions, even if there are incidental effects on minority voters who support Democratic candidates.”

This is yet another example of why political parties suck, and why we should have listened to President Washington and never allowed the corrupting beasties to exist in the first place. Texas “Republicans” see absolutely nothing wrong with election-rigging, screwing voters from the other party out of the right to vote, and subverting the electoral process for partisan gain. In their minds, it is perfectly OK to steal elections. And that is truly frightening.

Criminals saying that their crimes are no big deal are always scary: murderers who say “God told me to kill that doctor”, child rapists who claim “it was her idea”, and so on. The creepiest crooks are those who simply fail to understand that the law of the land applies to everyone, or even think that their crimes are legal when they commit them because, well, just because. Texas is saying that they can completely destroy the democratic process, so long as their primary intent is not to discriminate on basis of skin color.

Here’s hoping the courts and the Department of Justice drag out some big ol’ cans of Whoop-Ass for this case, and open them upon the Texas “Republicans” who are trying to steal an entire state. Because THAT, dear reader, would be a big crime, and worthy of a commensurate punishment.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky