Truth Gets Harder To Find

Two of Hollywood’s most significant contributions were “Absence of Malice” released in 1981 and “The Verdict” released in 1982.  The central theme of both is finding and demanding that truth be paramount.  Both were powerful exposés of the time but, more importantly, hold even greater significance some thirty years later. 

In “The Verdict” Laura Fischer played by Charlotte Rampling, states with complete confidence that our courts function to provide justice.  Attorney Frank Galvin, played by Paul Newman, quickly challenges the assertion by pointing out courts can provide only a “chance” for justice.  

Court proceedings have little to do with establishing or finding the truth.  Without a commitment to the truth, justice becomes a crap shoot.  DNA technology has freed prisoners on death row. We may never know if O.J. Simpson and Susan Anthony were actually innocent of the heinous crimes they were charged with.  Under our “double-jeopardy” clause contained in the Fifth Amendment of the constitution, these verdicts are final and can NEVER be appealed nor re-trialed.  The letter of the law was strictly adhered to, even at the expense of the spirit of the law (the truth,) and thus “democracy is served.” 

Like the courts, the press provides only a “chance” for determining the truth.  Media journalists no longer feel any sense of obligation to validate the authenticity of the information they report.  Politicians constantly lie about one another and the issues while the mainstream media routinely report the lies.  No effort is made to determine the truth and many among us are left believing what was reported is factual; and once again, “democracy is served.” 

This has given rise to PolitiFact which has, in recent years, become an accepted source for accurate political fact checking.  They recently awarded their "Lie of the Year" for 2011 to; Republicans had voted to "end Medicare" by voting for U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan's budget.  In 2010 their "Lie of the Year" award went to; the health care law President Obama had signed amounted to a "government takeover" of the insurance industry.  PolitiFact certainly could have found far more credible lalapaloozas had they spent just five minutes with Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman.  One can safely surmise that their failure to do was instrumental in motivating the writing and publishing of Ramesh Ponnuru’s article, “When political 'fact-checking' is wrong” for Bloomberg News.  Ponnuru does a nice job analyzing the authenticity of PolitiFacts award winners but more importantly establishes that this year’s award was strictly political in nature because it was obviously chosen only to offset the fallout from last year’s award.  PoltitiFact is now political.  Time to kiss that grand experiment goodbye. 

The courts, the press and even those organizations that tout themselves as truth finders cannot be trusted.  The reality here is that Paul Newman’s closing summation to the jury in “The Verdict” rings even truer today than it did thirty years ago.  

“So much of time we are just lost.  We say please God, tell us what is right; tell us what is true.” 

“Where there is no justice, the rich win – the poor are powerless.” 

“We become tired of hearing people lie – and after a while we become dead.  We think of ourselves as victims and we become victims.  We become weak.  We doubt ourselves; we doubt our institutions and we doubt the law.” 

“But today you are the law – you, are the law.  Not some book, not some lawyer, not a marble statue, not the trapping of the court.  No…those are just symbols of our desire to be just.  They are in fact a prayer, a fervent and frighten prayer.” 

“In my religion they say; “act as if ye had faith and faith will be given to you.” 

“If we are to have faith in justice, we need only to believe in ourselves and act with justice.  See I believe there is justice on our hearts.” 

We leave these motion pictures cheering and with a renewed sense of vitality for life and living.  We are elated from experiencing something we seldom experience - we see the truth prevail.   When was the last time we left the ballot box feeling exactly the same way?  For when we vote we are the law and only when we feel that same sense of elation, can we truly know; “democracy is served.”