60 Lies a Minute

Are you shocked that Dan Rather, “60 Minutes II,” and CBS News would present forged military documents in an effort to bring down an American president during a war?

I’m not. I’ve known for the better part of my writing life that the left inhabits a cesspool of filth and lies founded on hatred of God, country, and yes – ultimately self. What 9-11 should have taught them – that there are people in the world who hate America even more than they themselves do – was lost on them.

Instead they sunk even deeper into a virtual reality of self-loathing and pity. Over a year ago, they embraced the fantasy that only the removal of George W. Bush as commander in chief could preserve their carefully concocted virtual reality of one big happy world without America and Israel.

To understand why Dan Rather, the staff of “60 Minutes II,” and the management of CBS News would perpetrate such a fraud on the American people, we must understand one thing: The left has never believed in truth. For them it does not exist. The word “truth” applies only to individuals.

This individual truth can be – and frequently is – different and even contradictory from one individual to the next. Thus “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” becomes what is true for you and what is true for me. And so the false god of tolerance was enthroned in American life. The only truth that matters for America is that for the left – there is no truth.

In such a world, how does one tell a lie? The Jayson Blairs of America’s newsrooms become nothing more than engaging and entertaining storytellers who bring good reviews and welcome readership. They tell their bosses what those bosses want to hear. And so for a time, Jayson’s truth became the New York Times’ truth. And for those unaware of the fraud, the New York Times’ truth became their truth.

Sixty lies an hour. Was the Alar scare your truth? It certainly was the environmentalists “truth.” It probably wasn’t for the Washington State apple growers who saw the price of their fruit collapse following the broadcast. Their truth was lost homes, businesses, and financial ruin. But that was just their truth. In today’s world there are many truths – at least for the left.

A generation of Vietnam veterans also experienced Dan Rather and CBS News’ personal “truth.” As Anne Morse reports in this week’s National Review Online (“The First Rathergate“):

On June 2, 1988, CBS aired an hour-long special titled ‘CBS Reports: The Wall Within,’ which CBS trumpeted as the ‘rebirth of the TV documentary.’ It purported to tell the true story of Vietnam through the eyes of six of the men who fought there. And what terrible stories they had to tell.

There was only one problem: CBS’ self-confessed atrociteers were all liars and phonies later exposed by B.G. Burkett, a Vietnam veteran and author of “Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History.”

So why should we be surprised when Dan Rather presents “his truth” and asks us to share it? Isn’t it backed up by faked documents by unnamed sources? So what if the experts that authenticated the documents never saw them. Trust us. We only deal in the truth.