"Facts are stupid things."
I started out to post a blog about misquotes. So using the trusty Quotations Page, I searched for a quote about misquotes. The above sentence was spoken by Ronald Reagan in 1988. Ironically, it was a misquote of John Adams who said "Facts are stubborn things." A misquote of a quote about misquotes. Or a wrong fact about facts. This will be long. Hopefully a few of you will struggle through it.
Recently, Rudy Giuliani supposedly warned of another 9/11 if the Democrats win the White House in 2008. In reality, he did not say that. When reading what he really said, he warned that the Democrats would take the US to a defensive position, the same approach that was taken before 9/11. Even reading the article at politico.com, his quotes don't match the headline. While I don't agree with all that Rudy says, and I think he generalizes WAY too much, he's on target with what he says about the approach to the war. (I don't believe all Democrats feel the way he says or that all Republicans do either)
A lot of people have said that Rudy G. politicized the deaths of 2,973 people. I don't see it that way. I read the quotes and think he's politicizing the potential death of 2,973 +/- future people. He's talking about preventing the NEXT 9/11. You may agree with his points and you may disagree with his points. But be sure you talk about his points, not what he supposedly said.
This reminds me of Murphy Brown. In 1992, Dan Quayle gave a speech about families in America. Excerpts are posted here. He was ridiculed by the press, by late night comedians, by other candidates. Trouble was, once they read what he said, they all AGREED with him!!! After all was said and done, I wrote a letter to the editor (no blogs were around then) that asked newspapers to publish speeches in entirety.
With the internet, there's little excuse not to read a candidate's speech before commenting on a headline. Politico did a lousy job of reporting. I don't believe, this is a liberal conspiracy, I don't believe in that any more than I do a right-wing conspiracy. I believe it's a simple attempt to sell newspaper or web hits.
1 comment:
The Politico article made the mistake of trying to form an opinion for its readers rather than just giving them the facts. Going by the quotes I've managed to find from the speech I believe that I would have came to the same conclusion anyway though.
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