Little White Lies and Big Black Lies

The tag line of Salish Sea Communications is “Truth Well Told.” Unlike with the President and his cohorts, you will find here neither little white lies nor big black lies. If truth is the currency of communications, of what value is the current administration’s communication?

Having done communications work for decades, I’ve wondered how Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Hope Hicks could go to work every morning to aid and abet the lies told by their boss, the President. Maybe Trump believes what he says, like Hitler believing what he believed, so he’s right and truthful in his own beliefs? That’s subjective and juvenile sophistry perhaps but these communications professionals are smart people who know truth from lies. How much rationalization does it take to have the privilege to stand next to the seat of power and what price is worth paying for the loss of self-respect?

This week Hope Hicks resigned from the Trump inner circle, admitting to telling little white lies for the President. It’s not the little white lies that are shameful; it’s the big black lies she has aided and abetted from her position in the inner circle that are reprehensible. David Remnick writes in The New Yorker, “Hope Hicks is kidding herself if she thinks that her tenure in the Trump White House will be judged only for harmless, situational untruths.” [“Hope Against Hope”] Maybe Hope Hicks just couldn’t stand herself any more having to strategize lies in the name of Trump. Then again, what is the truth worth in a self-serving memoir to come?

The whole circus of Trump and his collaborators is rife with people caught lying or, if not lying, not telling the truth like when the detective in the mystery says, “No, pet, she’s not lying. She just not telling us the whole story.” There is a myriad of political and personal reasons to lie or to not tell the truth. Braggarts and bullies lie, spies lie, cheating lovers lie, bosses and workers lie, maybe lying is a habit, maybe one lie leads to another, maybe lies make the truth meaningless.

I hope not. Because if truth is the currency of communication, then trust is its equity. If you lie to me, I cannot trust you or what you say. Sadly, that’s where we’ve been taken to by the President, smart people like Hope Hicks and willing collaborators of a self-serving regime.

--Mike Sato

If you find the piece above a bit dark for you taste, lighten up with Andy Borowitz’ satire in The New Yorker: ‘Sarah Huckabee Sanders Organizing “Million Liars March” to Support Hope Hicks’