Perception and Reality

According to what the media has shared about the alleged McCain affair, aides allegedly talked confidentially to McCain in 2000 because it was the aides' perception that the public could think that McCain's friendship with a blonde lobbyist could be perceived to be more than friendship and potentially cause problems for McCain's then-campaign. Seldom does the public encounter such a strong case for or against any of the hot topics currently driving the media!

The problem with interpreting situations couched in such deep obfuscation is that today, that alleged perception not only has become headline reality, but a morality issue for McCain that threatens to terminate his presidential aspirations.

Doesn’t “alleged” mean not proven? Why does “alleged” morph into hard fact when it’s printed on the front page of a newspaper or repeated endlessly by salacious gossip seekers and news media?

Sure, there are those who live their lives by the old adage “Where there’s smoke, there's fire,” but I know for a fact that there is smoke without fire, a lesson learned while driving the freeway through Escondido. Judging from the amount of smoke coming from a cluster of buildings next to the freeway, I was sure there was a major 9-1-1 emergency. However, when I drove past the scene, I realized that it’s just smoke coming out of a vent and dissipating into the air. My perception was not reality, but had I not verified the source of the smoke before I called 9-1-1, I could have set off an alarm for nothing.

There have been events triggered by persons who have applied their perception to my life and made it reality for anyone who would listen to them. It took time to learn the lesson that nothing I could say or do would change the perception, so I kept my mouth shut and let the gossip run its course, which is what McCain should do. However, I'm not running for office, just trying to live my life, so validating petty people with personal agendas doesn’t rate too high on my “to do” list.

McCain, however, will live the rest of his life with a world-wide audience of believers who condemn him for having an affair—whether he did or did not—because they allowed someone else’s perception to become their personal reality. There is no taking it back, no do-over, no say you're sorry, no retraction that can lessen the damage created by the publication of the allegations, which is probably the purpose for planting the allegations in the first place.

Freedom of the press does not mean the freedom to print whatever comes across the news desk with impunity; it means the freedom to report that which is investigated, researched, and responsible factual information. Making it up as you go along isn’t news, it’s libel.

In a single stroke of the author's pen, allegations can destroy both the campaign and the candidate, becoming a powerful, lethal weapon for anyone who believes that their personal perspective should be the public's reality, especially during a political campaign.