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January 22, 2008

Why do ethics matter in politics?

Why should Oregonians care?

The ongoing brouhaha over the ethical malfeasance issues swirling around the Steve Novick campaign and the new Oregon chapter of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) begs the question: Why is "full disclosure" such a big deal anyway?

Well, as The Art of Lying explains,

To lie by omission is to remain silent and thereby withhold from someone else a vital piece (or pieces) of information. The silence is deceptive in that it gives a false impression to the person from whom the information was withheld. It subverts the truth; it is a way to manipulate someone into altering their behavior to suit the desire of the person who intentionally withheld the vital information; and, most importantly, it's a gross violation of another person's right of self-determination.

The problem with the lack of full disclosure, or lie of omission, is that it is potentially on par with a rigged "shell game" where there is no way to win without the acquiescence of whomever is running the game.

A good example of this can be found three months ago in the example of Fox News' Sean Hannity failing to disclose his prior relationship with Rudy Giuliani before pimping Giuliani on his show. In so doing he lent an air of objectivity on his part which was false or at the very least highly questionable.

Another example can be found just last week over at the Huffington Post regarding Mark Green, the former Public Advocate of New York - Full Disclosure? Don't Bet on It.

A few years ago, we learned that right-wing commentator Armstrong Williams, who had been noisily touting the virtues of "No Child Left Behind' on his radio program, was getting handsomely paid for his labors by the Bush administration's Department of Education. The liberal commentocracy went crazy, and rightly so. I wonder whether those same people will now direct some of their fire and ire at Mark Green, the former Public Advocate of New York.

One of the profound ironies in the Novick Campaign/PDA story is that one of the PDA's five core priorities is "Clean, Fair, Transparent Elections."

Posted by Kevin at January 22, 2008 08:17 AM