Those of us who survived the 2000 election recall the determined efforts of the media to paint Al Gore as a serial liar. Although he never said he invented the internet, they repeatedly claimed that he had, and cast him as a liar. There were other examples, most of them equally specious. But it became the meme of the campaign, and considering that Gore didn’t win by enough to get by the Supreme Court, it may have been the difference between victory and defeat for Gore, and sane government and Bush government for the rest of us.
So, right now it looks like Ben Carson is leading the Republican pack. Like the rest of his rivals (not just looking at you Carly), he is a serial liar. Check out the video here for absolute proof. So, that raises the question: will any one of the Republican candidates, Carson in particular, get the kind of treatment the media dished out to Al Gore? The media often insist that there’s really no difference between the parties. They are, within the media and beltway bubble, equally to blame for the governmental paralysis that is, in fact, solely the product of right wing machinations. Yet the media does seem to see one difference between the parties. It’s still okay, if you’re a Republican. Carson’s blatant lie will be quickly forgotten. And if you think they’ve changed their approach to Democrats, consider the eagerness with which the New York Times reported that Hillary Clinton was under criminal investigation (reminiscent of the same paper’s poorly sourced Whitewater stories), and the reluctance of the media generally to recognize the Benghazi committee for what it was. If they ever caught Hillary in a lie as clear and unambiguous as Carson’s, we would literally (and I mean “literally” in the sense of “literally” and not “not literally”) never hear the end of it.
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