Campaign ads have gotten to the point where they will boast twisted, or even completely untrue, "facts" or statistics about their opponent. Each candidate will claim that the other is spewing lies and misleading their audiences, when both do this. This has been going on since the beginning of politics, with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams attempting to get their people to believe each of their lies.
There has been an increase in fact checking during the last presidential campaign, which is a step in the right direction. However, these fact checkers cannot catch every piece of misinformation and the candidates can usually find a way to get their point across anyway.
In the end, people will believe whatever they want to believe. I'm not exactly sure if there is a solution to getting rid of the misinformation that is out in the media during campaigns. People who are loyal to their party will find ways to forgive their party's fibs.
Sierra,
ReplyDeleteI loved your opening line. Politicians will be politicians. There is no way around that. Politicians will do whatever it takes to get ahead of their opponent. Whether it be lying to make their opponent look worse, or stretching the truth to make themselves look better. If we continue to allow the media to help politicians spread vicious lies, then that is what they will do.
Sierra, you are completely right. Politicians will do what ever they can to get into office. They spend millions of dollars running, so I think they feel like they need to get to where they're going. Fact-checking will help cut down on the lying, but you were right when you said the candidates will get their points across anyway. This whole thing is really sad. Politicians just need their mommas to tell them to cut out the lying.
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