I have tried to confess on those rare occasions (well, I say they’re rare!) when I’ve been wrong, but in this case I have an excuse. When the George Santos story first reared its head, or at least first came to the attention of the wider population, I predicted that it would soon fade, as he was just a Republican being a Republican, and lying being no big thing for Republicans, the media would give him the same pass it ultimately gives all lying, hypocritical Republicans.
But Santos (assuming that’s his real name) has refused to go gentle into that good night. Just about every day another lie or criminal deed of fairly major proportions is unearthed, so he’s still in the news and the story, so far, has been impervious to both siderism.
In the post to which I’ve linked, I questioned why the Democrats didn’t make an issue of Santos’s lies, as I had reason to believe they were aware of them. Well, we learned recently from the New York Times that they did try to publicize his lies, but the media wasn’t interested. I love the way Times Reporter Nicholas Fandos puts it:
Democrats then labored unsuccessfully to convince the news media, which had been weakened by years of staff cuts and consumed by higher-profile races, to dig into the troubling leads they did unearth. Aside from The North Shore Leader — a small weekly newspaper on Long Island, which labeled Mr. Santos “a fake” — and a few opinion pieces in Newsday, New York’s media machine paid Mr. Santos scant attention.
Funny, I always thought that the Times was part of New York’s media machine, and I have a bit of trouble believing it didn’t have the staff to dig into the story, since it apparently did after it was too late to keep the guy out of office.
That doesn’t excuse the Democrats, of course. Had they launched a media blitz of their own, it would have forced the “New York media machine” to cover the story. Of course, it may be that they didn’t bother to invest in the race as they should have.
Fandos’s story, to which I’ve linked, is worth reading in full as he details the extent of the Republican’s knowledge of Santos’ dishonesty.
He doesn’t mention something that came up after his article. I love the fact that Santos, who has embraced the Republican hate campaign against drag queen story hours is himself a drag queen, something he has both admitted and denied. You have to wonder whether the guy has any self awareness. He appears to believe that he can tell any lie and be hyper hypocritical without consequences. Of course, maybe he’s right. He is a Republican, after all.
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