I had never thought about it quite this way. But, he’s right. When one of the Sunday morning talk shows invites Gingrich on to speak, it has a way of washing away his accumulated sins so that he can go forth and sin some more. There really ought to be more shunning and much less forgiveness in the relationship between our media and our political leaders.
You come on my show and tell a lie? You don’t get invited back. You come on my show and tell a bunch of lies and won’t take correction? We’re not even finishing this segment. Get the hell out!
I know this is hard to do because you are in a competition for guests. But the only thing interesting about Newt Gingrich (or Donald Trump, for that matter) is that they lie so brazenly without paying any price.
Personally, I think the media’s standard should be total embarrassment if someone comes on their show and tells an uncorrected lie. And if they won’t take correction, they shouldn’t be considered credible enough to have any airtime. Why run the risk of deceiving your viewers.
Another thing the media should do is a weekly accounting of everyone who came on their network and said something grossly inaccurate. In real time, you can’t always know that some statistic is utter bullshit. But it shouldn’t be allowed to stand.
I’d watch more political teevee if it cared about the truth.
