“When In Doubt, Tell the Truth”

In passing, my little neighbor is outside, and she has absolutely the cutest voice. I swear, she sounds just like a squeaky toy. And she’s usually very serious about something, which makes it even funnier. Cracks me up every time.

Having nothing to do with that – I just was smiling as I was writing and wanted to explain why, even though you can’t see me – I’ve noticed a trend.

Both General Motors and Barack Obama have created an online presence dedicated to dealing with online rumors.

• GM’s
• Obama’s

Opinions about the current state of the two entities aside (it’s fair disclosure to tell you that I have a "Yes We Can" magnet on the back of the Civic for which I just traded in my beloved Saturn) – this is interesting.

Kennedy said, "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." So yes, of course this is nothing new. But these new cases of having to handle myths directly does clearly speak to the speed and the reach that information, false or true, has because of the internet.

I’m sure corporations and campaigns would be more comfortable if they could prance along their message tracks and not have to detour to talk about anything else, false or true, that anyone was insisting they talk about. But, as somebody slightly more important than Kennedy said, "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." And as someone else important said, "truth will out."

It’s pretty basic. If it’s real, say it, even if you’d rather be talking about something else. And if it’s not, don’t say it, because you’re going to get found out. This video is a great example of the finding-out part. (Did I say I wasn’t going to get politically opinionated? Maybe I lied.)

Anyway, it’s nice that the big entities are now forced to deal with the realities of untruths- correcting other people’s, and confronting their own – as much as we as individuals are. Unlike little Madison, we can’t all make people happy just with the sound of our voices. We’ve got to think about what we’re saying, and sometimes that means we have to talk about things we’d rather not talk about.