Politicians lie more between the party primaries in August and the general election in November than at any other time.
Or, more precisely, lies are told on their behalf. That way, they can keep their hands clean and pretend to run on issues, not personalities.
There is one way voters can fend off the ever-rising wave of partisan swill gushing from their televisions, filling mail boxes and popping up on social media pages as summer turns to fall.
Just don’t believe it. Any of it. It’s not there to inform you, but to sell you a political agenda.
Every commercial message you see, read and hear has been paid for by somebody, somewhere, who wants you to respond their way. Some are even crafted to discourage you from voting.
It’s that old line about anything sounding too good to be true probably isn’t. Same for anything sounding too bad. And that goes for every race, from the White House to your soil and water conservation board.
Oh, some of what you see will be accurate, even helpful. Candidates need namefamiliarity and to ask for your vote. Some missives will be neutral, coming from civic organizations that just want to inform the public of polling places, operating hours and basic legal requirements for casting a ballot.
What you need to be wary of, though, is anything that strongly suggests voting for or against a person, party or ballot initiative. Freedom of speech necessarily carries with it the freedom to lie, so campaigns hire consultants to package messages meant to get you thinking one way or the other about what’s on the ballot.
One little gimmick for preserving some fig leaf of righteous indignation is a line at the end of a pamphlet or TV spot like, “Tell Joe Smith to keep fighting for our children,” or maybe, “Tell Mary Jones we’re already taxed enough and don’t need wild socialist ideas.” Notice, the message doesn’t say how to vote, just plants an idea and suggests you contact some local official—which the advertiser knows you won’t do.
Then there’s lying by omission—saying something true about an officeholder while leaving out a fact or two.
We had a physician in the Legislature some years ago who voted to send a bill back to committee to fix language dealing with a ban on a strong anesthetic known as the “date rape drug.” The bill was amended so doctors could legitimately use the knock-out pill but a predator couldn’t slip it into a woman’s drink. At election time, the doctor’s opponent put out a leaflet labeling him “Dr. Date Rape” and reprinting a page from a legislative document showing he’d made the motion to sidetrack the bill into committee.
Of course, the ad didn’t mention that the bill was fixed and became law.
Worse, after a child was abducted and murdered by a monster out on bail, a few bills were introduced to make judges hold hearings before setting bonds in such cases. One bill passed, so four others were tabled—a routine move in the Capitol. Still, a challenger ran a TV spot with two moms at a playground, aghast at a lawmaker: “Can you believe he voted four times against protecting our children from predators?”
Of course, the spot didn’t mention how the guy had also voted for the law that rendered the other four bills unneeded. Campaign strategists count on voters being shocked by an allegation, and not knowing about routine parliamentary moves.
The First Amendment being what it is, an endless array of supposedly independent political committees can run advertisements on all media, saying whatever they want. Candidates can wash their hands of sleazy tactics—“Oh, I didn’t say that, it came from Floridians for Fresher Breath and Whiter Teeth.”
Not good enough. If your side benefits from a hit piece, it’s your message unless you publicly renounce whatever accusation is made, denounce the sponsors of the false attack and demand they knock it off.
Everybody says they want candidates to discuss issues, rather than whacking each other. But attack ads work and as long as we keep rewarding them, why would they change tactics?
Bill Cotterell is a retired capitol reporter for United Press International and the Tallahassee Democrat. He can be reached at wrcott43@aol.com.
