Grifters and Pundits

My friend Ginger alerted me to the latest incident of Fox News brazenly falsifying what the network humorously refers to as "the news."  This time the whopper concerned President Obama's nuclear arms treaty with Russia -- evidently Fox reported that the treaty leaves America defenseless by eliminating all nuclear weapons when, in fact, the treaty leaves two thirds of the weapons unaffected.  As despicable as this sort of counterfeit reporting is, the dance of deception requires two partners -- the grifter and the easy mark.  It's apparent what the deceivers get out of the transaction: power, money, the win, the sly superiority of the liar.  But what do the willfully deceived get?  They get to escape.  They (and by the term "they," I sometimes mean "me') get to escape knowledge of the truth.  Knowledge, and the responsibility that comes with knowledge -- the responsibility to be accountable, to risk one's own preconceived notions, prejudices, and comfort, in the interest of what is true and good.  If we want this flight from accountability, the dance of deception requires us to pretend to believe what the network pretends is the news.