Exclusively in the new print issue of CounterPunch

HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.

Weekend Edition January 28-30, 2006

If You Don't Have Power, Don't Lie

Small Fry

by TOM KERR

The media filleting of alchemist James Frey, author of the faked memoir A Million Little Pieces, assures us that truth matters in America.

How dare Frey pull on our heart strings with his million little lies! How dare he exaggerate and fabricate! How dare he misrepresent the painful events of his life and our times to get our vote, our approval, our backing! How dare he sell us lead for gold, put the Sale before the Truth.

Power is the only real difference between former-addicts-not-quite-well Frey and Bush. We can’t get lying Power in the hot seat, so we’ll take lying Everyman.

Bush and members of his regime lie to sell their story whenever and however required. Lying for them is first nature.

Lies stand in relief against a backdrop of truth. That’s how we typically recognize a lie when we see it. When the backdrop is falsehood, lies blend in.

Bush regime loyalists lie both by omission and commission so often and with such little consequence that it’s hard to see them–to know them–as liars. Many of us know they’re lying, more or less constantly, but when Power lies the lie becomes the truth and it’s hard for an honest person to get any traction-to prove it.

Thus we have the protest slogan-and everyone knows how difficult it is–"Speak Truth to Power." It is quite another matter to speak truth, as Oprah has with enthusiastic approbation from her mainstream media pals, to the powerless. That’s about the easiest thing in the world.

We will never witness Bush being forced to come clean with Oprah on her couch, and Bush, unlike Frey, is never going to say, "Yes, I’ve lied; I regret it. I lied because I am weak." A Democrat congress might have played Oprah’s part in an impeachment, but we’ll never know.

The lesson for kids? If you don’t have power, don’t lie: look what happed to James Fry.

If you’re powerful, lie away, lie to your heart’s content, lie with deep conviction, and lie big: just look at the magnificent Bush regime.

We can’t fry the big fries, so let’s fry James Frey.

TOM KERR teaches writing and rhetoric at Ithaca College. He may be reached at tkerr@ithaca.edu.