Just the Facts

 "All we want are the facts, ma'am"—Jack Webb

Throughout the ‘50s we had Dragnet, a procedural cop show starring Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday. He only wanted the facts. Today he would be lost. No one is interested in the facts. Certainly not our president.

While I agree with Mark Twain’s quote that, 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics,’ suggesting that data can be manipulated to misrepresent the truth, but somewhere within the numbers and information there is truth. Facts exist, just like opinions and lies. The job we face today is one of separating the wheat from the chaff. In agriculture that process is called winnowing, where farmers separate edible wheat grains from the inedible husks called chaff. We need to sift through the information to identify the worthwhile elements and discard the rest.

It is a daunting task made even more difficult in this digital age of overwhelming quantities of data, often from unidentifiable and/or unreliable sources. We need to evaluate ideas and assess and distinguish between competent and incompetent individuals to help discern the truth. It would be wonderful if we could do as the farmers do and toss everything into the air and let the wind blow away the lighter lies to catch the heavier truth.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom, but who reads books anymore? Who needs wisdom, we have artificial intelligence. It is often said that the truth will set you free, but what they leave out is that it will first make you miserable. The truth is out there but you need to make the effort to find it because it isn’t looking for you. Lies travel at the speed of light while the truth travels at the speed of dark.

There was an old television show called Truth or Consequences which would probably leave modern audiences scratching their collective heads. Today, inconvenient truths are reviled, expunged, deleted, and the term whitewashed brings with it a new connotation. There are no consequences for helpful lies.

To put it in context, when was the last time you heard of someone being fired for competence? Since January 20, 2025, it has been a regular occurrence. On the other hand, incompetence with the right attitude, a loud voice, commitment, and a reinforcement of “the party line” brings accolades, promotions, and, if necessary, a pardon. Competence that contradicts the desired message will bring a pink slip faster than our fearless leader can wolf down a Big Mac.

Yesterday we heard that the Liar-in-Chief is gathering a crew to alter our nation’s history at the many Smithsonian Exhibitions (current and future) by “correcting” errors under the guise of wanting to “reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American story.” What could possibly go wrong?

This “initiative” is said to have as its goal the “removal of divisive or partisan narratives, and the restoration of the confidence in our shared cultural institutions.” Break out the whitewash and the extra-large brush, the Trump spin doctors are about to overhaul our nation’s history and culture in their own image. I can only assume that the “partisan narratives” that are being removed are any that don’t delight the MAGA faithful.

Apparently, the Smithsonian's “deep commitment to scholarly excellence, rigorous research and the accurate, factual presentation of history” needs the Trump spin doctors to metaphorically kick the historical tires to eliminate anything that might not be on message with the goals of this administration. Historical accuracy will stand no more of a chance than a bad jobs report.

Also, on the Truth chopping block and subject to the fickle presidential Sharpie is climate science, the census, and any information that covers what he labels as “gender identity” or the dreaded DEI. We no longer have to worry about climate change as the president has declared greenhouse gasses a myth. Wow, that’s a load off my mind. He also wants a mid-decade census to bolster Republican chances before the midterms. He can’t legally do this but when has that stopped him?

To this administration, facts are like cherries. Pick the right ones and anything can be made sweeter. The jobs numbers are now a positive statistic as his newly appointed right-wing economist has cleverly found the right cherries. On the old television show Truth or Consequences, at least, we had "Beulah the Buzzer" to let us know a contestant had incorrectly answered the trivia question.

Can you imagine press secretary Karoline Leavitt making her pronouncements with a Beulah Buzzer interrupting her when she lies. A Trump speech would be unintelligible over the noise. Not that that would be much of a change.