Why Politicians Get Away With Lying

[elleng]

Maybe it’s a sign that the public has given up on honesty from presidential candidates. Instead, in a recent flurry prompted by the public editor of The New York Times, the assumption seems to be that politicians will always lie and that voters’ defense against that is fact checking by journalists.

But … why do voters let politicians lie to them? What sort of lies do people accept, and which do they object to?

Todd Rogers of the Harvard Kennedy School and Michael I. Norton of the Harvard School of Business organized this discussion.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/01/22/why-politicians-get-away-with-lying/?hp

[msongs]

1. I imagine they lie to voters/constituents and tell truth to their $$/donors, as in

the $$ people are the ones the politicians really represent

[FrenchieCat]

2. Maybe politicians wouldn't lie so easily if Journalists actually did their jobs

in a timely fashion, and called out the liars loudly and often.....but they don't.

Witness the Newt lie of calling Pres. Obama the "Food Stamp President"....

The facts show that the real Food Stamp President was George W. Bush!
http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mccalla/fact-check-shows-gingrichs-obama-food-stamp-claim-was-false/

and Newt has been making this statement for quite some time!

Finally, fact-check.org called Newt on this big-ass lie on 1/20/12, the day before the SC primary, which was already very late in the game....and yet, to date, we have not heard the pundits or news reporter straight out call Newt the liar that he is!

The whole point of having a "free" press as included in the 1st amendment was exactly to protect the American populace from a "bought" press whol would mislead an entire nation....
and yet, we have exactly that; a "bought" press, which does exactly what the founding fathers feared, regularily misleads an entire nation.

[David Jeffrey Spetch]

3. LOL

Most Politicians are religious and religious are the most notorious liars thast ever existed. So go figure!

/ david