As a journalism student during the Vietnam War era, I was assigned to read a history called The First Casualty by Phillip Knightly. The title is drawn from the maxim that when war breaks out, truth is immediately killed by propaganda. Truth is the “first casualty.”
The subject turned out to be relevant in my half-century-long journalism career covering election campaigns where I learned that Mao Zedong was correct in stating that “Politics is war without bloodshed.” In politics, as in war, truth is often the first casualty.
This is the case in the campaign between Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley for North Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat. But in this campaign, some of the biggest claims about Cooper’s record don’t withstand scrutiny.
The outcome of that race on Nov. 3 – and possibly whether majority control of the U.S. Senate remains in Republican hands – may depend on whether voters accept those attacks.
I don’t write this conclusion to be melodramatic. John S. Knight, the owner of the Miami Herald where I spent most of my career, had a single instruction to his journalists: Find the truth and print it. The reverse was equally important: Find lies and deceptions and expose them, perhaps in larger fonts.
Some Whatley campaign claims fall into the latter category. This much we know: his campaign is attacking Cooper, the former Democratic governor, with claims that are contradicted by the record.
Those false claims were repeated this month by President Donald...
Program offers 1% commission on recovered funds, administered by Department of Justice WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday announced a new federal ...