Can't You Hear The Whistle Blowin'?

by Jonah Goldberg - April 17th, 2006 - TownHall.com

Journalism, like politics, depends on a slew of useful fictions. They're too numerous to list here (besides, they make for so many useful column topics, I'd hate to pre-empt myself). But it is worth pausing to watch as a new myth is sculpted before our very eyes.

Over the last decade or so the media has carefully cultivated an ingenious distinction. Call it: whistleblowers versus leakers. You've surely seen both of these mesmerizing creatures on display in the carnival menagerie that is your nightly news. "Whistleblowers" reveal things "America needs to hear." "Leakers" have grubby agendas.

This is a very interesting article to anyone who cares about truth, rather than political correctness. The stubborn refusal by the MSM and others on the left to acknowledge that Joe Wilson is a liar constitutes one of the glaring examples of why liberals and conservatives are simply unable to talk without rancor. When such a contemptible duplicity continues to be defended, it stands as proof our nation has lost the most important element required for democracy, common ground that lets us talk with even a modicum of acceptance of the difference between truth and opinion. "Truth" has become a word that means nothing more than this is my opinion and if you disagree I consider you evil. Our nation is the loser.