Sunday, March 15, 2009

Mike Huckabee: Truthfulness and Accuracy?

Tonight on his Foxnews show Mike Huckabee told a wonderful story about Sir Winston Churchill and Sir Alexander Fleming (discoverer of Penicillin). And that's just what it is, a story. But Huckabee told it as if it were as true as the sun coming up in the morning.

Now this isn't that major of a deal. I don't think this story had any bearing on anything, just a fun story. At most is just indicates that Huckabee is rather sloppy in his pursuit of truthfulness and accuracy.

Several weeks ago he devoted a fair amount of his program to a discussion of 'a church in Ocean Grove, NJ that had been ordered by a NJ Court to allow a gay couple to use it's pavilion to marry.' This was, best case, a huge stretch of the truth and a big load of hyperbole. Most reasonable people would deem it simply misleading and lying. The pavilion in question was actually a public facility, not privately owned and maintained by the church. This was NOT a case of government interference with a private church as Huckabee led his audience to believe.

Huckabee claims to be a Christian. As Christians it is absolutely critical that we strive to be completely truthful and accurate in everything that we say - especially when we're saying it to an audience the size of Huckabee's. It's one thing when we spout off without thinking to a few friends, something I've been guilty of far too often, it's another when we do it in a planned way to mislead people as Huckabee did.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw that too. I figure he will get emailed about it and read it on his next show. I don't think he meant to lie, he probably just got an email about it and figured he should feature it. Maybe he just thought it was true, I'm not sure.

Crusty said...

Agree. If this were the only such incident I don't think it would be worth mentioning, but there have been a number over the past year and at some point they begin to add up to, if nothing else, sloppiness. If someone in his position is routinely sloppy with facts can you EVER believe what they say?

Crusty said...

In the Ocean Grove incident though both Huckabee and his guest were aware of the truth as both had been questioned about it before - that's at least a step beyond simple sloppiness. We need people whom we can trust.

Anonymous said...

The pavilion is owned and maintained by the church and it is not a public facility!! The church has its right to decide whom it would open to or not!!

Crusty said...

dtl, the pavilion has been deemed a public accommodation in 3 regards; maintenance is funded through public taxation, historical use has been public, not religious, and the Camp Mtg Assoc (EG, the church) had actually deemed it a public accommodation itself when it applied for 'Green Acres' tax treatment.

Crusty said...

If this had been a private religious organization, eg, just about any church, I would agree that this case would constitute significant cause for concern.

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