By DOUG THOMPSON

From The Capitol Hill Blue

Jan 22, 2003, 00:50

A quote from legendary Chicago journalist Finley Peter Dunne graces the home page of this web site.

³It is the role of a newspaperman,² he said, ³to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.²

A longtime reader of Capitol Hill Blue didnıt like the implications of that quote when we posted it on Jan. 1 of this year.

³Sounds to me like youıre starting to lean a little too far to the left,² he said.

Say what?

³The Republicans are in power now. That makes them the comfortable ones, which means they are now your targets.²

Anybody who thinks the party in power in Washington is comfortable doesnıt know a hell of a lot about how the town works. The party in power spends all of its time worrying about how to stay in power.² Comfort ainıt part of the equation.

A character in the movie version of Tom Clancyıs Clear & Present Danger answers a question about what the White House really wants out of a covert military operation in Columbia.

³They want what every first term administration wants,² he says. ³A second term.²

Iıve been writing about the antics of elected officials for nearly 40 years. More than a few lost their jobs because of my stories about their misdeeds while in office. Others should have, but didnıt.

That, to me, has always been the role of a journalist ­ the skeptic, the one who asks the questions nobody else does, the one who puts aside any political philosophy, bias or personal feeling and goes after the one thing that is all too often missing in our government ­ the truth. The truth is not situational. Itıs not subject to interpretation. It either exists or it doesnıt.

You donıt need a degree in political science to realize most politicians lie. They lie all the time. They lie so much that they no longer consider it a lie. Itıs ³spin,² itıs ³our take² or simply ³our positioning² of the issue.

Bill Clinton lied about Monica Lewinsky. Ronald Reagan lied about Iran-Contra. George Bush the first lied when he promised to not raise taxes. Jimmy Carter lied outright when he said ³I will never tell you a lie.²

Distortions of the truth are so ingrained into politics that even most journalists, who are supposed to be in search of the truth, help spread the lies. Turn on any Sunday morning news talk show and both Democrats and Republicans distort, sanitize and sugar coat their positions with half-truths, misrepresentations and ­ face it ­ outright lies. And the hosts of these shows let them get away with it by not challenging what they clearly know are lies.

Some think omission is less of a lie, but itıs not. If you withhold facts that undermine your position, you are not giving the public the truth.

During a dark time of my life, I actually made a good living teaching people how to deal with the press. Iıd never tell them the lie but I never told them to simply tell the truth.

³Use the opportunity to put your message across,² I would tell students in spokesperson training sessions. ³Stay on your agenda. Donıt answer questions that stray from that agenda. Ignore the question and stay on point.²

Watch Meet the Press, Sunday Morning or Face the Nation. See if anyone ever answers a question directly. They wonıt.

Which is why Finley Peter Dunneıs quote graces these pages. Weıre not here to serve the Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians or even Whigs. We donıt exist to promote conservatism, liberalism, fanaticism or any other ³ism.²

Weıre here to find the truth, and I donıt much give a damn who gets pissed off when we do.

Thereıs another quote I live by. It sat on my desk during my years as a newspaper man.

³If your mother says she loves you,² it reads, ³get a second source.

.İ Copyright 2003 by Capitol Hill Blue