Does The Truth Still Matter?
Does The Truth Still Matter?
The inability to accept responsibility on small things leads to innocent people getting hurt
Is it worse to be ignorant and spew factually incorrect information or to knowingly lie about what you believe to benefit politically or financially?
That is a question I ask myself often. Consider the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News which recently produced a series of texts from Fox host Tucker Carlson saying some nasty things about former President Trump.
"That's the last four years. We're all pretending we've got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it's been is too tough to digest," Carlson replied, per the filing. "But come on. There isn't really an upside to Trump." Source: Business Insider
Carlson also said on January 4, 2021 “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait.” In another message, Carlson said, “I hate him passionately.”
The Fox News scandal of hosts and executives saying one thing in private and then another to their viewers got me thinking a bit. Are organizations doing their fiduciary responsibility when they knowingly lie to their stakeholders, shareholders, investors, donors, etc.?
It is a major problem in politics, business, and non-profits. We need to “create the narrative” as I was once told by someone defending an organization that was dragging its feet on informing its members and donors of embezzlement.
Creating the narrative is something that people do when they don’t want to accept responsibility or hold people accountable. It is hypocritical to hold political opponents to a higher standard than we do ourselves. Good organizations and strong leaders accept responsibility and make changes in a very public way. They want to build trust and actually fix the problems.
Just look back to the Bill Clinton sex scandal in 1998. Many members of Congress condemning the former President have not only refused to condemn their own leaders for similar scandals, but many had their own personal scandals just as bad or even worse. One member of Congress who later became Speaker of the House had even molested children!
If we don’t have the candor to tell the truth about smaller things, it eventually leads to covering up the big things where people are hurt such as sexual harassment or abuse. When your loyalty remains blindly tied to an organization instead of people, particularly the people who trust you to be honest with them, you are on a slippery slope.
Defending what you believe to be right may not always be popular, but at least you won’t have to answer for being dishonest.