Analysis: In Ottawa, brazen lie starting to feel like truth by Susan Delacourt

[applegrove]

Analysis: In Ottawa, brazen lie starting to feel like truth
Nov. 5, 2006. 01:00 AM
SUSAN DELACOURT
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
Toronto Star

South of the border, American commentators appear to be increasingly stirring to the realization that truth has become a casualty of post-9/11 politics.

The most detailed case for the assault on truth is laid out in a new book called The Greatest Story Ever Sold, by New York Times writer Frank Rich. The author is a former theatre critic for the Times, appropriately enough, since he's written about how truth has come to be seen as something that can be stage-managed by cynical politicians.

Much of Rich's analysis — and outrage — takes off from a 2004 article in the Times' magazine by Ron Suskind, in which an adviser to George W. Bush sarcastically dismissed truth as a quaint fixation of journalists and their "reality-based community."

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The most notorious is the whole "dog" controversy, surrounding the question of whether Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay actually did refer to MP Belinda Stronach, his ex-girlfriend, as a canine companion.

At first, MacKay hid behind a vague non-denial.....

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