A Million Little Shades of Gray

And Does Anyone Care?

There are a couple of good points made in this BBC piece on the recent growth of the fact-checking industry (story and video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19954722 ).
   One is the possibility that the fact-checkers themselves can be biased. "If you've got two fact-checking groups that come to different conclusions, you've got a problem," says Dr. Robert Lichter, Media Center president at George Mason University. While this is a good point, it's also worth keeping in mind when you hear Dr. Lichter imply that Politifact skews left that he was once a paid contributor to the Fox News Channel and is the co-author of a book called The Media Elite, both of which achievements suggest he may have a bias of his own. So who's checking those who check the fact-checkers?
   The other, perhaps overriding point, is the big picture, presented by Amy Gardner, political reporter for the Washington Post: "One of the difficult questions that this election presents to us all," she comments, "is whether the people even care about what's being said that's true or less true." A frightening thought when one considers where such public insouciance ~ or perhaps it's cynicism? ~ can take us.
   I happened to be teaching a creative writing class to a group of high school sophomores and juniors the year that The Smoking Gun published an article on James Frey's popular book A Million Little Pieces. In it, Frey was accused of making up most of the incidents he recounted in what was billed as the true memoir of a young alcoholic and drug abuser's road to rehabilitation. It came as a complete surprise to me, when I brought this up to my students, that, to a one, they saw no harm in his fabrications. Perhaps most disconcerting of all was the assertion, echoed by many, that we are constantly being lied to ~ by politicians, by corporations, by textbooks ~ so what difference does Frey's lying make? At least his book helped some people. At least some took courage from his message and his journey and were able to change their lives around. That's more than can be said, they argued, for the fabrications to which we're all exposed on a daily basis.
   Ms. Gardner continues: " ... all of the fact-checking organizations out there are constantly pointing out ways in which both campaigns are saying things that aren't quite true, and yet it doesn't stop them from doing it, and that tells you that they do it for a reason, which is that it's beneficial ... "
   When we get to the point where no one believes anything any longer, have we gone too far to turn back?