CAMDEN — We imagine some people in Arkansas cringed a bit, a sort of hometown embarrassment, at some of the revelations that came out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
No, we’re not talking about “no collusion, no obstruction.”
We’re talking about the revelation, perhaps we should say confirmation, that an Arkansan has gained fame, not as so many of our noted citizens have in music, acting, medicine, education etc., but as a professional liar.
Sarah Sanders, who makes her living as presidential press secretary by trying to deceive the media, thereby the American public, responded to the report that claimed she admitted that she lied on more than one occasion.
Sarah might try to wiggle out of it by claiming “slip of the tongue” and that she made a statement “in the heat of the moment,” but it has long been obvious that she acts in her role as press secretary, not to illuminate and educate, but to obfuscate.
It’s not that we do not understand or appreciate the position she is in as a White House spokesperson. We’re willing to employ that southern pass of forgiveness for shortcomings or transgressions by saying “bless her heart,” she can’t help herself, she’s loyal to the man who hired her and, considering the environment she’s in, she’s bound to have to trip over the truth now and then.
If it were just us folks back at home in Arkansas tsk, tsking our regret that one of our own had become veracity-challenged, it would be one thing. But Sarah’s performance is a national embarrassment.
As to her claim that “countless” FBI people had told her they had lost confidence in former FBI chief James Comey, Kyle Pope, editor-in-chief and publisher of Columbia Journalism Review, said in an Associated Press article published in the Chicago Tribune, “This now documented, on-the-record, under-oath episode, I think it completely obliterates her credibility. I remember watching and thinking there is no way countless FBI people called up Sarah Sanders. It stretched credulity just on its face.”
Pope said the episodes raise questions why any reporter would attend Sanders’ briefings, which she has scaled back from daily to about monthly, or “put stock” in what she says.
In the AP article, Frank Sesno, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, said credibility is the only currency a press secretary has to offer.
When you throw it overboard or devalue it, you do so at your own peril. I think that Sarah has a lot of explaining to do, which should be done forthrightly and honestly about the disparity in her comment, said Sesno, a former White House correspondent for CNN.
Sesno also said, “The public and the media expect partisans and press secretaries to spin,” or attempt to put a rosier face on less-than-flattering situations. They don’t expect them to lie. If you’re caught in a lie, you should acknowledge it and figure out whether you can repair your reputation.”
It kind of makes us wonder if much of the country thinks folks from Arkansas just have a problem with the truth. Remember, another Arkansas native went to Washington with such a problem and look at the impeachment problem that caused him.