Integrity

A trait overlooked by many. However, consciously or not, it is a characteristic many seek… at least in others. I have a huge character flaw, I take getting lied to personally. It is one of the reasons that I cannot get behind Obama, although his supporters are saying that Obama is not a liar, he is promising higher taxes and enlarging the welfare state, not issues liberal Democrats have readily admitted in a close election.

But what he is not admitting is the truth about his associations. He is not admitting he is a socialist. And he is attacking people who dare to question his integrity. His supporters used Ohio state computers to dig up info on Joe the Plumber. But savagely attacking a private citizen for asking a question about taxes when you approached him on his street is not an issue of integrity, B. Hussein’s other character flaws are for another blog(s).

The polls are telling.

President Bush’s ratings are dismal, although not the lowest of any sitting President, primarily because the media and his political opponents launched attacks calling his integrity into question. It wasn’t the missteps of the Iraq war that damaged his ratings, it was the perception that he lied about his reasons for getting into the war. It wasn’t low for allowing Congress to ignore his repeated warnings of the imminent failure of the economy, nor , unbelievably, was it the actual failure of the economy… it was the perception that the economy was bad despite all key indicators being up. The Democrats in Congress and the media was telling everyone how bad the economy was for the best 5 year period in American history. People gave him low ratings because they perceived he lacked the integrity to address the faltering economy, that he was ignoring the economy rather than fixing it. Others gave his low ratings for failing to stand up to the lies, letting the deceit go unchallenged is also an integrity issue.

Congress is another example of a lack of integrity affecting public opinion. The 110th session of Congress came in promising to change the way government worked. Nancy Pelosi, the presumed Speaker of the House, promised reform, honesty, and transparency in making earmarks. She then made a grand show of her first “100 Hours”, which took 6 weeks to reach because she was only counting legislative hours. As she celebrated her 6 “essential” pieces of legislation that she rammed through the house without debate people noticed that apart from the raise in the minimum wage people noticed it took 40 days to get to her 100 hours and she is celebrating one accomplishment, the minimum wage increase, the others were partisan window dressing. And in the time it took her to reach 100 hours Congress’ approval rating was below 40%... within a year it would be around 26% and before the end of the 110th Congress she will have guided the approval rating to the lowest of any modern Congress… below 10%. Of course she wasn’t alone, her partner in the Congress, Harry Reid helped. Their phoniness shines like a beacon in the night, they have no integrity and are proud about it… the people understand that.

The third, and most important example of how people expect integrity, is the media. People’s trust for the media exceeds that of the President and eclipses that of Congress, but that is very likely because the polls to gauge people’s trust in the media were also commissioned by the media. In a May 2008 poll 46% of people said they trust the media, with only 19% totally believing them. Instead of stepping back to see where this break in perception lies (media outlets in the US are commercial establishments, loss of market share equals loss of revenue) they dropped all pretences of being dispassionate reporters of events and started creating stories, essentially engaging in yellow journalism. Ironically one of the prime offenders, and one which is bleeding money because of it (but they refuse to admit they are wrong, it must be everyone else), is the New York Times. The New York Times, formally known as the Newspaper of Record, was started in 1851 as a conservative alternative to the yellow journals fighting it out for NYC market share. While Hearst and Pulitzer gained fame and then notoriety for their patently false reporting, the New York Times was given the moniker The Gray Lady, because it used a standard print and format and avoided the bombastic inflammatory headlines the other NYC papers used.

People expect the media to be honest and have integrity. The standard for broadcast newscasters was Walter Cronkite. He was the voice of authority and an icon for generations. At his pinnacle 30 million people a night turned on CBS to hear Walter Cronkite tell them what was happening in the world. Today all three major networks don’t share 30 million viewers. And while apologists can try to point out there is now cable competition, the truth remains that the decline started almost 20 years after CNN came on the scene. It was the birth of FoxNews that gave a home to people who wanted to hear more than what was becoming a more and more leftist distortion of events. The broadcast news and cable stations (along with many local non-affiliated stations) allowed their editorial content to filter the news, and eventually ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and many non-network stations stopped broadcasting news and started airing propaganda.

I’ve blogged in the past about the difference between perspective and spin. But Dan Rather’s airing of the patently false story concerning President Bush’s military records was met with limited outrage because by 2004 people expected the media to lie to them. People on the right were outraged, not so much about the deliberate lie being broadcast, but that no one else was outraged by it.

The media has forfeited their standing in society. Their integrity is gone. And like virginity, once it is gone it cannot be restored. The liberals (why be dishonest, after all I’m talking about integrity), I mean the socialists who hope to get into office with super majorities of both houses and the executive branch of the government, have announced their plans on how to limit dissent. The first plan they have is called “The Fairness Doctrine”. Since talk radio, along with FoxNews has led to the declining viewership and readership of main stream media sources, the MSM is likely to side with them on it.

But if the government’s power is allowed to go unchecked, one day perhaps the main stream media will start to talk about it, attempting to regain its previous status. But it will be too late. No one will believe them as they have already rendered themselves irrelevant. And the last vanguard against tyranny, a free press, will find itself at the mercy of the government, rather than acting as the fourth estate, designed to keep the government in check.

Our founding fathers’ were careful to provide for a free press in the constitution to assure the citizens will always have a free press. The 1st Amendment, like the rest of the constitution, is a protection from the government for its citizens, not the press. And in giving up their integrity and valuing propaganda over substance the media didn’t fail themselves, but the people they were expected to protect.