Krugman: ‘Welcome to Post-Truth Politics’

To refashion an old phrase: “There are lies, damned lies, then yarns spun by Mitt Romney.” This is the gist of a recent post by Paul Krugman, who points to falsehoods recently uttered by the Republican presidential hopeful to predict new lows in a new era of fact distortion wrought by those seeking the helm of the highest level of federal government. –ARK

Paul Krugman at The New York Times:

As Greg Sargent of The Washington Post has pointed out, there’s a common theme to these whoppers and a number of other things Mr. Romney has said: the strategy is clearly to portray the president as a suspect character, someone who doesn’t share American values. And since Mr. Obama has done and said nothing to justify this portrait, Mr. Romney just invents stuff to make his case.

But won’t there be some blowback? Won’t Mr. Romney pay a price for running a campaign based entirely on falsehoods? He obviously thinks not, and I’m afraid he may be right.

Oh, Mr. Romney will probably be called on some falsehoods. But, if past experience is any guide, most of the news media will feel as though their reporting must be “balanced,” which means that every time they point out that a Republican lied they have to match it with a comparable accusation against a Democrat — even if what the Democrat said was actually true or, at worst, a minor misstatement.

Read more