Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

Pinocchio: Art Credit, Disney

If ever there were a time for a national "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire" award, it's now.

And certain Fox "News Anchors" would certainly win, hands down.

Take, for instance, Tucker Carlson. Who, on air, for the past five years, has been rabidly behind the former (45th) president.

Especially in the months prior and after January 6, 2021, Carlson was going full steam in promoting the fantasy that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

Carlson is so skilled at truth distortion, that if there were an Olympics for Lying, he would handily grab a gold. If not make Pinocchio turn green with envy.

In fact, he's so good at divorcing himself from reality that even while he was spreading falsehoods on air, he was admitting the election had been lost, off-camera.

As a result of  the $1.6 billion-dollar defamation lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems has filed against Fox, emails have been shared that were generated behind the scenes from various Fox "anchors."

For example, those reported by the New York Times, between Carlson and his producer Alex Pfifer, pointing to the discrepancy of how Carlson felt about the 45th, and the claims of election fraud, off-air, shortly after the November election:

Alex Pfeiffer:Trump has a pretty low rate at success in his business ventures.

Tucker Carlson:That’s for sure. All of them fail. What he’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that.

Carlson:I had to try to make the WH (White House) disavow her (referring to Sidney Powell), which they obviously should have done long before.

Laura Ingraham:No serious lawyer could believe what they were saying.

Carlson:But they said nothing in public. Pretty disgusting. And now Trump, I learned this morning, is sitting back and letting them lose the senate. He doesn’t care. I care.

Credit: Pinocchio, Disney

Or this exchange, a day or so after the January 6 insurrection:

Carlson:Trump has two weeks left. Once he’s out, he becomes incalculably less powerful, even in the minds of his supporters.

Carlson:He’s a demonic force, a destroyer. But he’s not going to destroy us. I’ve been thinking about this every day for four years.

Pfeiffer:You’re right. I don’t want to let him destroy me either. [REDACTED]. The Trump anger spiral is vicious.

Carlson:That’s for sure. Deadly. It almost consumed me in November when Sidney Powell attacked us. It was very difficult to regain emotional control, but I knew I had to. We’ve got two weeks left. We can do this.

And here's another text, reported by the NY Times and other news organizations:

Pinocchio, Disney

“The whole thing seems insane to me,” he wrote. “And Sidney Powell won’t release the evidence. Which I hate.” Ms. Powell, a legal adviser to the Trump campaign, was “making everyone paranoid and crazy, including me,” Mr. Carlson added.

Carlson kept on beating the stolen election drum, even though privately insisting it was insane to believe it.

As late as March 7th Carlson continued to defend his fantasy, as he offered heavily edited videos of the January 6th insurrection in an attempt to plug it as peaceful and meek.

Included in the NY Times coverage is a gem of a quote from Carlson, showing he is still promoting what is basically a lie: “In retrospect, it is clear the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy (referring to false claims of election fraud). Given the facts that have since emerged about that election, no honest person can deny it.”

And so Carlson has, at last, ascended the Mt. Everest of Irony, claiming to be honest. As a child, I remember hearing the saying, "two-faced liar," to indicate a person who was caught telling whopper-sized fibs. 

I think Carlson has crossed the line into polycephaly.

Of course, there is a moral component to all of this untruth. Some Bible verses that discuss lying are quite interesting.

For instance, Proverbs 26:28: "A lying tongue hates those it hurts."

Or Ephesians 4:25: "Stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth..."

Or Exodus 23:1 "You must not pass along false rumors. You must not cooperate with evil people by lying on the witness stand."

And how about this one from Proverbs 12:19, which neatly sums up the end result of telling fibs. "Truthful words stand the test of time, but lies are soon exposed."

The Jewish Talmud forbids lying or deceiving others. "The Holy One, blessed be He, hates a person who says one thing with his mouth and another in his heart." (Pesahim 113b). 

The Buddha was also against lying. "The Buddha made 'not lying' one of the fundamental training practices of self-transformation... He made it clear he believed that there is an essential connection between truthfulness and personal integrity. If one goes, so will the other." 

Sikhs place a high value on truthfulness as well. "There is a famous saying of Guru Nanak's: 'Truth is high, but higher still is truthful living. By this he means that living truthfully, showing devotion to truth through one's behavior and actions, brings one closer to spiritual awakening and to God. Righteousness and morality are central to the practice of Sikhism." 

Maybe it's best to conclude with something that speaks to the power of love and its connection to loving the truth. It's from 1 Corinthians 13:4-6. "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth."