Open government, truth, and a tragedy in Arizona

What led to the horrific shooting in Arizona, leaving innocent victims dead and injured, is still unclear.  What is clear is that this is a tragedy that we must learn from.  I will let others discuss issues such as gun control, my focus is more upon the focus on the vitriol in politics.

Passionate debate that crosses the line into personal attacks and lies is not something new in any part of the world, much less the United States.  Remember the attack by John Adams against Thomas Jefferson where Adams stated that, if Jefferson were to win, “murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood and the nation black with crimes.”  Good natured political discourse is not exactly in our DNA.

What makes the behavior worse in today’s world, however, is that these attacks are immediately delivered, in near real-time, to the entire world.   Foolish statements, outright lies, spread much faster.  The real-time delivery of information has magnified the impact of this vitriol, but it has not created it.

If this vitriol is not new, and is unlikely to go away without severely impacting our right of free speech, is there hope?  Yes, that hope comes through open government and from journalist and others taking information provided via open government and sharing the truth.  Political fact checkers exist and they can help.  Just as the 112th Congress has changed its rules to require all bills to be available for 72 hours before being discussed on the floor, we could require the same thing for all political speeches, television commercials, and the like.

If every speech, if every political commercial, came with a breakdown of the TRUTH, could we not improve upon the information being delivered by politicians?  Would they not be forced to speak the truth, from their own perspective, as opposed to delivering false messages when their audience has the truth handed to them at the same time?  The idea is simple:

• All political speeches must be available in printed form, and on-line, 72 hours before the speech.  Approved fact checkers must be able to post any necessary facts, in-line with the speech, and must be able to deliver the same, in written form, when the speech is delivered.
• Television commercials would be required to display a fact-checked version during the commercial, running in real-time at the bottom of the screen.

This would work.  Sure, there are many details that would need to be worked out, details to ensure the concepts feasibility.  However, if we were bold enough, fearless enough, to make these changes, we would no longer be living in a world where half-truths were the norm, the price for not providing the truth would be felt in real-time.  What do you think, is it worth a try?