After totally calling out Hosni Mubarak as a “dictator” the other day, Anderson Cooper is still calling it as he sees it: that the Egyptian president is just telling “lies” at this point. With word that Mubarak has left Cairo and that he might actually be giving up power, we’re seeing a fundamental shift in the way Cooper & Co. are reporting the news: honestly. “It’s all lies,” says Cooper of Mubarak’s statements (like the one where he says protesters are being paid by foreign interests to show up in Tahir Square). This is, frankly, amazing. And it reminds me that American journalists still refuse to use such words when describing American politicians. “Lies” become “misleading statements,” a half-assed way of phrasing what plenty of Republicans (and Democrats) are involved in every day. POLITICIANS LIE. PEOPLE IN POWER LIE. They act in the opposite way they say they will. They make public statements but do the reverse in private. “Liar” is a very strong word. It’s also a very accurate one. Let’s start using it more.
word choice
Anderson Cooper Dubs Hosni Mubarak A Liar. Why Can’t We Say The Same About American Politicos?
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Joetx
I always thought once a certain member of the U.S. House of Representatives from SC shouted “Liar!” during one of Obama’s SOTU addresses, it should be open season on calling out politicians on their lies.
Ian
I’ve always noticed that the majority of newscasters give near total passes on anyone associated with the GOP, the people with whom breathing and lying are synonymous. They say what was said by the representative of the right and/or corporations was “unclear” or “possibly mistated” or “poorly chosen wording” or “misunderstood” or “poorly worded” or “misinterpreted” etc. ETC. They never simply call out ANY politician from either party, but particularly the GOP, as what they are, a LIAR that wouldn’t tell the truth if their grandmother’s life depended on it.
It shows that the corporate ownership of our digital airwaves of news networks stifles liars in government or big business having to worry about getting exposed.
WillBFair
Above all things, commercial news wants an ignorant public to buy and vote as they’re told. So of course they’re not going to speak clearly about the obvious.
That said, don’t you ever say one word against the Silver Fox. He’s the best of a bad lot. If he doesn’t call US politicians liars on a regular basis, it’s because his delicate constitution is too delicate. He does speak more plainly than most of them. He’s dignified yet fun. And that charming giggle should be bottled and marketted to far left pessimists.
Cam
True, it is SUCH B.S. when a politician is caught FLAT OUT LYING and the press says …
“So and So apologized for misspeaking”. Um, no, they didn’t misspeak, they lied.
Martin
The first time I heard Anderson use the word “lies” against Mubarak I immediately thought about the times when he has gone easy on Republicans and teabaggers who were clearly lying. He’d use the term “factually incorrect”. I like Anderson, but he needs to get as tough on right wingers/teabaggers as he is with Egyptian dictators. CNN thinks they’re going to get Fox viewers if they pander to the right. It’s never gonna happen.
Joetx
“CNN thinks they’re going to get Fox viewers if they pander to the right. It’s never gonna happen.”
Unfortunately, Obama does the same in the hopes he’ll get their votes.
rrr
@Martin: With the right wing & tea baggers that plays into their hands. They thrive on the myth of a Liberal Media Conspiracy and a sense of victimhood over being unfairly (to their minds) maligned. It binds them together more closely, fires them up, and makes them even more convinced that FOX News and right wing blogs are the only places of truth and justice.
Some of the right wing politicos are such ignorant dim bulbs and nuts that it also can be hard to tell if they actually know what they are saying is false and are therefore actively lying to people.
Brian Miller
Both major parties and their politicians lie.
Remember when Bill Clinton campaigned as the pro-gay president, yet then campaigned for and signed DADT and DOMA? If you referred to him as a liar for his efforts in that regard, you were blasted as a GOP plant.
Until we’re willing to treat political duplicity with equal contempt, regardless of which meaningless “party” the politician belongs to, we look like jackasses when we demand equal treatment for ourselves.
MikeE
calling a head of state – sitting or former – a “liar” is unacceptable and disrespectful, regardless of your personal convictions, when you are a journalist. Anderson Cooper should know better. It doesn’t matter that Mubarak has been ousted. It doesn’t matter that he was dishonest. It was unprofessional of Cooper to do so.
Of course, American journalists feel no qualms whatsoever about calling foreign leaders “liars”.
God forbid they should be disrespectful, however, of American politicians. There is a disgusting double standard at play here.
American journalists aren’t even ethical enough to ASK the right questions when they interview patently dishonest American politicos. They are too afraid of being blacklisted and never getting any interviews,
This isn’t an anti-American rant. It’s the reality of the fear that Americans live under, and which they don’t even seem to be aware of! Right now, there are frightening similarities between what is going on in the US with people like Palin and her extreme right wing cohorts, and what was going on in Germany while the Nazis were setting up shop.
I’m not comparing them to Nazis (because, God knows, we don’t do that here, do we?), but the climate of fear, and intimidation, is VERY similar. If you “aren’t the right kind of people” you “aren’t a real American”. Its a very small step from that type of rhetoric to something we swore would never happen again.