{"id":112983,"date":"2013-10-31T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=112983"},"modified":"2013-10-31T13:34:17","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T17:34:17","slug":"why-did-time-fabricate-a-quote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/why-did-time-fabricate-a-quote\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Time fabricate a quote? Correct"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\u201cJerry, just remember. It\u2019s not a lie if you believe it.\u201d George Costanza, \u201cThe Beard\u201d, Seinfeld<\/em>, Episode 102, 9 Feb 1995.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nTime Magazine<\/em>\u2018s \u201cSwampland\u201d blog appears to have fabricated a quote in its story about the revision of the Air Force Academy\u2019s honor code. While one may well assume mistake or malice lay behind the creation of a quote, there is the suggestion of deeper purpose.<\/p>\nIn reporting on the contretemps over the Academy\u2019s honor code, Time<\/em> might well have been making a statement on the purposelessness of honor codes in general. Could it be asking the philosophical question: \u201cWhat is truth?\u201d \u2014 offering an answer drawn from deconstructionism that posits that truth exists only in the eye of the beholder?<\/p>\nFollow me through this tale and tell me if you see what I see.<\/p>\nWhen <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newshour24.com\/politics\/74w2ew4el\/On-Wing-But-On-Prayer.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">published<\/a> on 28 October 2013 the article entitled \u201cOn a Wing, But Not<\/em> On a Prayer\u201d the article began:<\/p>\n<blockquote>While there may be no atheists in foxholes, the Air Force Academy has decided there will be no mandatory God in the heavens. The academy \u2014 at 7.258 feet above sea level, the closest of all the nation\u2019s military schools to God\u2019s realm \u2014 has long had a reputation as the most Christian of the nation\u2019s military learning institutions. But the Colorado Springs, Colo., academy has decided to make the \u201cso help me God\u201d coda to its cadet oath optional after a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (not surprisingly, the Christian Fighter Pilot group denounced what it calls a \u201cdramatic change\u201d on its website).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe version that <a href=\"http:\/\/swampland.time.com\/2013\/10\/28\/on-a-wing-but-not-on-a-prayer\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">appears<\/a> on Time<\/em>\u2018s website as of 30 October 2013 is slightly different. The subordinate clause contained in the parentheses in the concluding sentence is absent. Perhaps this is due to the <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/29\/time-blog-misquotes-christianfighterpilot-com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Christian Fighter Pilot<\/a> group not having said what Time<\/em> claims it said.<\/p>\nThe Christian Fighter Pilot website noted:<\/p>\n<blockquote>After pointing out that this website did not \u201cdenounce\u201d the decision (in fact, quite the opposite) and that the \u201cdramatic change\u201d comment was clearly facetious, [Time<\/em>] deleted the reference.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nTime<\/em> corrected but did not note its error in the story. But the question how, or why, the error occurred remains. The Christian Fighter Pilot website suggested:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Given that [Time<\/em>] clearly didn\u2019t read the article, one wonders how he came to the conclusion that it was\u00a0\u201dnot surprising.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s almost as if he has preconceived notions about Christians in the military.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThat is certainly a possibility. It may well be that Time<\/em> read the blog, but misunderstood what it read. Given the need for speed in preparing internet stories, misreading a source will happen. Or, the author relied upon information passed to him by a person whom he trusted \u2014 a form of the\u00a0 \u201chat tip\u201d [h\/t] some bloggers use in citing the source of information in their posts (usually with attribution to the source), but often not confirming its veracity. Mistake rather than malice explains most sins.<\/p>\nThe suggestion of bias raised by the Christian Fighter Pilot, however, finds support in the tone of the Time<\/em> piece. On first reading I thought the Time<\/em> piece somewhat heavy-handed in its approach to the story \u2014 \u201cclosest\u201d to God, \u201cno mandatory\u201d God. To my ears these attempts at wit rang a false note. A wan smile was all that they elicited from me \u2014 juvenile, but not dreadful.<\/p>\nBut other possibilities soon emerged.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nThe article stated:<\/p>\n<blockquote>The academy\u2019s original honor code dates to 1959 and reads:<\/p>\nWe will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.<\/em><\/p>\nBut it was modified following a 1984 cheating scandal to read:<\/p>\nWe will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and to live honorably, so help me God.<\/em><\/p>\nThe phrase \u201cso help me God\u201d was tacked on \u201cto add more seriousness to the oath,\u201d according to a former faculty member. Apparently, there was a subset of Air Force cadets who would cheat absent God as a wingman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIf you read this honor code extract against the knowledge the Time<\/em> story violated such an oath when it fabricated the Christian Fighter Pilot quote, its cleverness is apparent. By using the ironic device of making a false statement in reporting on a code of conduct that condemns false statements, Time<\/em> might well have been playing a language-game on the moral efficacy of honor codes. Why else would it suggest that morality is conditional?<\/p>\nDoes not Time<\/em> write: \u201cThere was a subset of Air Force cadets who would cheat absent God as a wingman\u201d ? E.g., bad actions are not sinful in and of themselves. Lies are wrong when they are discovered to be lies, not before. And who has the authority to determine what is truth?<\/p>\nTime<\/em> appears to be arguing for a post-modernist view of truth based not on Jacques Derrida\u2019s deconstructionism, but on Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Lyotard <\/span>\u2018s arguments that truth is inseparable from the age and system to which it belongs.<\/p>\n<blockquote>In lieu of meta-narratives we have created new language-games<\/span> in order to legitimize our claims which rely on changing relationships and mutable truths, none of which is privileged over the other to speak to ultimate truth. [Lyotard, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=0816611734\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Post-Modern Condition<\/a>, 1994]<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOr, \u201cIt\u2019s not a lie if you believe it.\u201d<\/p>\nIs the Time<\/em> team making the argument that as it believes the Christian Fighter Pilot would have denounced the revision of the honor code oath (in view of Time\u2019<\/em>s opinion of the Christian Fighter Pilot\u2019s thinking), the fact that it did not denounce it is irrelevant? Did not CBS follow this line in what is now called the Dan Rather theory of journalism? \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2004\/09\/15\/politics\/campaign\/15guard.html?_r=0\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Fake but accurate<\/a>\u201c?<\/p>\nOr perhaps I have spent too much time on airplanes of late? There comes a time when to every man\u2019s mind when the breaking point is reached when listening to Euro-pop. What say you Get Religion<\/em> readers? Is a cigar sometimes just a cigar? \u201cFake but accurate\u201d? A mistake? What?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cJerry, just remember. It\u2019s not a lie if you believe it.\u201d George Costanza, \u201cThe Beard\u201d, Seinfeld, Episode 102, 9 Feb 1995. Time Magazine\u2018s \u201cSwampland\u201d blog appears to have fabricated a quote in its story about the revision of the Air Force Academy\u2019s honor code. While one may well assume mistake or malice lay behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,75,7,11,12,106],"tags":[2531,2530,2532,2533,2534,1165],"class_list":["post-112983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-ethics","category-journalism","category-pop-culture","category-religion","category-religious-liberty","tag-air-force-academy","tag-christian-fighter-pilot","tag-honor-code","tag-jean-francois-lyotard","tag-nihilism","tag-time"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Why did Time fabricate a quote? Correct<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Jerry, just remember. It's not a lie if you believe it." George Costanza, "The Beard", Seinfeld, Episode 102, 9 Feb 1995. 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