Tell Me No More Lies

Egads. Has the nation’s press loss all sense of our profession?

I understand that we are all under a great deal of scrutiny about how we cover election stories fairly and accurately, but if we allow anyone to say anything without any recourse, we do the country and democracy a great disservice.

I’m not talking about the hot and heavy political rhetoric that both Democrats and Republicans spew constantly, saying they’re plans for the future are best, or their opponent’s ideas all suck eggs.

I’m talking about crazy talk that has real consequences here.

First off today is Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who was convicted, and I do mean convicted, this week by a jury on seven corruption counts. The veteran GOP senator was already in a tight race for re-election, made more difficult by his conviction, and I do mean conviction.

So during a debate with his opponent yesterday, Stevens reportedly said, repeatedly, that he hadn’t been convicted of anything, that instead, there was simply a pending case against that was all pack of lies.

That is a pack of lies. And for newspapers to allow Stevens to say it, at least without prominently calling him a liar, is just plain crazy.

Likewise, top John McCain campaign officials announced yesterday that McCain had “closed the gap” with Obama in battleground states and they now had a plan to win the White House.

It’s a lie. At best, and this is looking at only the polls that are most favorable to McCain, Obama’s lead in states McCain must win has eased some. But to suggest that McCain can get to 270 electoral votes by reclaiming Indiana and North Carolina is just crazy talk.

By allowing this nonsense to make print, we legitimize it, and we lose even more credibility than do the candidates.

It’s one thing to let McCain crazily call Obama a “socialist” and to repeat Obama’s false remarks about McCain not understanding the economy, but the rest of this stuff is making is all look like Fox News.