Everyone Does It
Fact checking the claims in the discussion over Social Security, Jeanne Sahadi, CNN/Money senior writer, warns us:
That means truth – or at least the whole truth delivered in context – is sometimes sacrificed or exaggerated by both sides in the interest of making their point. Oh, and your friends and neighbors may have a few things wrong, too.
So beware the blarney.
She lists five examples of “exaggerations” with pop-up explanations, but the problem is the “even-handedness” of the media. Her explanations of all five points show who is making the “exaggerations”, who is “sacrificing the truth”, but she feels the need to imply that the people on the other side are just as culpable, apparently for exposing the distortions.
That one side of any controversy is known to be lying does not automatically mean that the other side is telling the truth, but, neither does it mean they are also lying. You evaluate the claims of both sides independently and report the facts: it is a concept that was once known as “journalism”.
