February 16, 2007
The Bunk of Tomorrow Debunked Today Posted by Frederic D. Schwarz at 03:55 PM EST The recent discussion of power struggles in New York’s state government reminded me of an item I clipped a few weeks back from my favorite source of political news, the Page Six gossip column in the New York Post. This was published before the Assembly chose a new comptroller. The item read: “Albany pols are concerned because one of the possible candidates to succeed state Comptroller Alan Hevesi is said to be a closeted homosexual. The Democratic majority in the Assembly will pick Hevesi’s replacement, probably from their own ranks. ‘Though they would appoint an openly gay candidate, they worry about someone in the closet,’ one Dem told Page Six. ‘After the Hevesi fiasco, they want honesty, and worry about the pressures involved for a statewide official to remain in the closet.’” There is much food for commentary here, but what interested me most was the final sentence in the Page Six item: “They point to what happened to New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who was forced to resign when his secret came out.” This is demonstrably false, as McGreevey’s homosexuality did not become public knowledge until he brought it up himself during his resignation speech. For the record, McGreevey’s departure from office had nothing to do with his sexual preference; he was forced to resign for repeated acts of corruption that were unacceptable even by New Jersey standards. Surely I was not the only person whose reaction on hearing about McGreevey’s “I am a gay American” speech was: “That devious son of a gun is trying to turn himself into a martyr!” And if Page Six is any indication, it seems to be working. We’ve all seen situations like this, where a misunderstanding takes hold and you know it’s wrong but are powerless to stop it. It’s common today to hear that Bill Clinton was impeached for having an affair; I’m sure that schoolchildren are already being taught exactly that. In fact he was impeached for committing perjury, but that makes a much less exciting story. Then there’s the following item, which I read in a newspaper this week: “Scooter Libby, former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, is on trial for identifying CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press.” (The newspaper was The Onion, and yes, I know that it’s satirical, but this appeared in the serious introduction to a string of gags and was clearly meant to be accurate.) In the unlikely event that anyone still recognizes the name Scooter Libby a year from now, those of us who were paying attention will patiently point out that Libby was put on trial for lying to investigators, not for “outing” Valerie Plame, which has been admitted by someone else and, in any event, was not a crime. Admittedly, a gossip column and a parody newspaper are slender reeds on which to rest a theory of mass deception. To be fair, most regular news stories do get these points right, however reluctantly. But fine distinctions tend to get lost when incidents are recalled weeks later, let alone years, especially if the resulting approximation is more lurid. We can all think of historical events that turn out to be much more nuanced than they seem, when you examine them closely. Now we have a chance to witness it happening right before our eyes.
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