Published: October 30, 2009 05:21 pm         

FLASHPOINT: Unfortunately, the truth is often twisted

What is the actual “unfortunate truth?” It is the relentless barrage of lies and twisted, self-serving, short-sighted propaganda we are subjected to by the energy sector, the private health insurance sector and the conservative talking-head sector.

A couple of the latest salvos can be found locally in the Tribune-Star. One was a full-page advertisement from the group Energy Citizens and the other was Diana West’s pitiful attempt to advocate for Rush Limbaugh’s rights.

The ad claims “Another unfortunate truth about Congress’s climate bill” will be the loss of 2 million jobs. Besides being another lie, it baits us with passive-aggressive terminology and partisan coding. These communication strategies have dominated the “no-change” sectors’ efforts to dig in like ticks against reforms intended to improve the lives of all Americans and make us a more civil society, create a fairer, more robust economy and advance our role as a responsible, cooperative global neighbor and leader.

This is not baseless criticism. Using tactics employed by health insurance companies, the American Petroleum Institute created Energy Citizens and directed them to hold rallies, put ads in papers and disrupt progressive energy reform. They have a list of places to target and Indiana is on that list. The “evidence” cited in these taser tactics of predicting massive job losses and high gas prices if Congress has its way is the result of “research” done by Charles River Associates International. Why doubt their evidence or research? It is widely known that Charles River Associates has been producing flawed research for many years to support the claims of those in the energy and conservative business sectors (see U.S. Chamber of Commerce).

Charles River Associates uses a proprietary research method that resists objective scrutiny while cherry-picking data that ensures the results their clients want. It has done the same thing to fight environmental protection policies, citing extreme projections, well beyond those of government or academic research (10 to 14 times more extreme), of damages to agricultural industries, dramatic food cost increases, etc. All of this is designed to scare people and fabricate opposition to policies that might derail their clients’ gravy train.

As for West, she views aggressive rebuking and containment of those in her camp, such as Limbaugh, as a violation of free expression. Necessary to her indignant outrage is neglecting that the allegations and commentary about Limbaugh and the others are true! These people are guilty of knowingly trying to dupe American citizens out of their birthrights and as a result should be treated like the carpetbaggers and vandals they are.

Perhaps the message in all this is to be smarter about what you believe, especially when the stakes are high, investigate your sources and remember that trust is the mother of deceit. Marian Wright Edelman points out that “We do not have a money problem in America. We have a values and priorities problem.” Our government is us. It is not some foreign conglomerate shipped in to tell us what to do. We dictate the values and the priorities and task them to solve problems accordingly. While the control big-money interests have over our government suggests otherwise, their money would have much less influence if more Americans were in agreement over the issues, held politicians accountable and we all treated the truth with respect.

— Don Rogers

Terre Haute