A few weeks back I noticed a stark, black and red cover of Time Magazine with the three words, “Is Truth Dead?” scrawled across the cover. Immediately in my mind I said to myself, “you better believe it,” as if the magazine was shoving a microphone in my face.

 

It got me thinking. Is it really dead?

 

After this past year’s election, we might all have to say, “yes!” After all, the world was telling us that Donald Trump had zero chance of becoming President of the United States and he did. All the polls and news networks were telling us that Hillary was way far ahead and the Donald had no shot.

 

Even Newsweek believed the hype and had copies of their cover with Madame President and a picture of Clinton delivered to bookstores days before the election results.

 

Trump himself, has blitzkrieg-ed the news organizations, calling many of them fake news, especially the once highly-touted CNN. 

 

Last March, I saw a copy of the StarTribune with the headline reading, “100 days to stop Trump”. Is that sincere commentary, speaking for the masses? Not everyone in this state was against Trump as the ‘Trib would like to make you believe. As a matter of fact, if not for the Twin Cities area, this state would have turned Red.

 

There is a saying in the law profession that a person charged with a crime is “innocent until proven guilty”, though many nowadays claim it is more like, “guilty until proven innocent.”

 

I feel the same way about truth. It’s no longer, “truth until proven false”, it is more like, “false until proven truthful.”

 

Back in the day before cable TV and the internet, people would rely on local and national newscasts (remember Walter Kronkite?) and newspapers to give them what was perceived as truthful news. If you saw it in print or heard it from old Walter’s lips, it was considered the truth. 

 

Those days are over, it seems.

 

With the dawn of the internet, Google, Facebook, etc. and cable TV stations, it appears the line between fact and fiction has grayed considerably.

 

How about the movie from 1994 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger called, True Lies? It’s an oxymoron, a pun and a contradiction all rolled into one. It completely identifies today’s culture in two simple words.

 

Remember the good old days when putting your hand on a Bible during an oath meant the truth is about to come out? Nowadays the ritual of placing one’s hand on the sacred Book is nothing but a symbolic gesture it seems.

 

I troll the pages of Facebook daily and many of the pages I “liked” have postings that read, “Breaking News”, or “Exclusive” — yet, the information it contains is either made up by the page’s author and/or never verified. Heck, it used to be people could dispute “fake news” on the internet by going to Snopes — but we all now know that isn’t trustworthy either.

 

Today it seems easy to be a liar and a scoundrel and get away with spewing fake news. There are affairs, divorces, murders, shootings, abductions, corruption and deceit — no different  than years past, you say?

 

I think it’s very different because nowadays it’s part of our norm, part of what is accepted. Lies are part of who we are as a society and are as common as a bowl of ceareal for breakfast.

 

So, who do we turn to to dispute what we hear or see? There are no Walter Kronkites anymore! Snopes is a sham. Networks and newspapers are biased.  Dan Rather and Brian Williams disgraced. 

 

Facebook? 

 

Forget about it.

 

So, is truth dead?

 

Well, in my opinion — if it isn’t dead, it’s mortally wounded.