July 14, 2016 at 7:45 am, by Carl

I was listening to NPR the other day.  They had a story about a company in California who will bring a fake crowd of people to your event.  While the reporter for NPR seemed genuinely intrigued by the company, all I could think was “this is how far we have sunk.”

 

Instead of hearing it as they wish, appropriately entitled “Crowds for Hire”…the point was clear that when a company is hiring either supporters or protestors, they are hiring liars to pretend.  I told my daughter Logan, who is an actress, and she quickly pointed out that they were basically actors.

 

That is correct, of course…and, if we want to be stark, then actors are professional liars.  In the theater though, we don’t worry about it because we know they are lying…or to be more kind, they are playing pretend.  We pay for a ticket to see the pretend show.

 

Yet, when we watch TV and see an angry group of protestors, or supporters…and no one tells us “hey, these are paid actors; we have no idea if they agree with this stuff”…then such crowds impact our feeling about the issue.  Sadly, today, its just seen as our norm—liars for hire.

 

Interesting, if you read this 2010 story from NPR, they were more willing to call out Netflix for staging a phony group of supporters.  Then, the writers called it for what it is:  “Now, it seems, just out and out lies have replaced bribery.”

 

Maybe this is the saddest point…six years later even vaunted NPR just shrugs and looks the other way.  At least Ari Shapiro was willing to try and call the company out when, at the end of the interview, he noted that a college student who was facing potential expulsion had paid the company to send fake witness for his defense.

 

Yep, this college student apparently paid one of these companies that brings “liars for hire” to send 20 college-aged people to come into the Institution’s academic grievance program to lie for him.  What would clearly be perjury had it been a civil or criminal trial was used by this student.  And, it worked.  The college’s jury (probably comprised of students, some faculty and administrators) listened to these 20 witnesses for the accused student say what a great guy he was and that he hadn’t meant to do anything wrong and that the school should not suspend him.  He was allowed to bring witnesses to testify about his moral character.    HE PAID FOR THESE LIARS TO COME SAY THIS STUFF.

 

Shapiro, to his credit, was incredulous that it had worked.  Worse though, to my ears, the reporter on the case seemed to think it was a great idea.  For sure, the reporter explained that the CEO of the company thought it was no big deal.  He, so he explained, had checked the facts of the case and thought the student was getting a raw deal, so he sent his liars to support the kid.

 

Yeah…that’s what will make our country great….let’s start using liars for hire.  I guess since President Clinton openly lied on his trials about Monica Lewinsky and faced no jail time for clear perjury, everyone else deserves the same freedom.

 

Many of my peers wonder why students lie and cheat…and yet cannot seem to make the connection that when they vote for someone like Clinton (and Hilary is just as bad as Bill), they are encouraging students to lie more.  We have spent the past 30-40 years moving away from the morals and values that led to our founding and great national success.  Now, we are so lost and confused we can’t even see the issue with this.  I’m sure many listening to NPR thought it was a great idea and wondering why they didn’t think of it first.

 

Once, as a nation, we used to at least be willing to agree that lying is bad.  Maybe that’s the prayer I need to start praying…not that we’ll stop lying (why would we if our leaders and candidates for office do so with impunity)…but that maybe we’ll at least start to agree that other people lying is bad.

 

Not likely, huh?  I don’t know what to say.  Really.  I write this blog to help point out the ways to live well.  Obviously I am from the wrong planet.  My advice to be truthful, to be honest, is obviously stupid.  So, I guess I should join everyone else.

 

Lie.  Lie and Lie some more.  Maybe I can pay this company to send people to read my blog and post comments.

 

NO!  Let us stand up against those who suggest it is best to lie in order to get ahead, to rile up the mob against something or to have pretend supporters for something.  This could be the fight of our lives, for our culture.  Choose the right!  Let me quote Captain America to close:

 

“Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — “No, YOU move.”
― J. Michael Straczynski, Civil War: The Amazing Spider-Man