On 21/05/06, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
On 5/20/06, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
It's still a matter of how you expose the hypocrisy. In the case of the Massachusetts congressman who openly campaigned for a maximum of four terms, it was a verifiable fact that he was in his seventh term.
I would still be careful - I doubt that we could not have found a source for someone else pointing out the hypocrisy. If it was up to us, we would have to be very careful that he had indeed promised that, that there were not significant mitigating circumstances in the meantime, that anybody actually cared etc.
Politicians make lots of broken promises...it's appropriate to point out the ones that made headlines. Pointing out that a promise made as a backbencher to completely reform the nation's tax system was never carried out...well, you'd struggle to find a one line mention in a local paper about that.
My view, incidentally, is that it would be worthwhile mentioning that as a backbencher he promised X, Y and Z - it shows where his interests lay, which is always of note - but actually saying "and, of course, he never managed it" is itself the "spin" You assume by default that a backbencher's goals are never going to be carried out, and whilst on the rare occasions when one manages it you say so*, actually pointing it out seems like you're trying to make a point.
I guess this ties in well with the headlines thing - successes should be remarked on, and Big Things which fail remarked on, but not the things that no-one noticed...
* A. P. Herbert gave a maiden speech on his second day in the House promising to reform the divorce laws - and had it done within a year!