When did lying become okay?

I spent many years reporting and editing for newspapers.   During that time, the matter of reporting lies was not much of an issue.  We knew that people lied sometimes, but not many did.  That's because people then feared the great humiliation they would receive if being exposed as liars.  

Sometimes people would be mistaken about things they said,  and would acknowledge their errors when pointed out to them.  But no one wanted to be accused of telling a deliberate lie.  

A reason for few lies getting published had to do with a basic rule of journalism.  When reporters were not present at some event or it was not recorded in some official, verified document, it had to be verified by other independent sources.  The policy book at the last newspaper I worked for required at least three such sources.  Reporters were expected to be diligent about making sure that any account published was verified as accurate.  Fact-checking was a fundamental part  of reporting, of composing a news story.  The editor, who was also a half owner of the paper, said never to print any you knew was not true without stating it wasn't true.

But electronic journalism and its obsession with sound bites changed that procedure.  In broadcast journalism, the priority is to obtain video or sound bites of newsworthy people saying things.   Sometimes those sound bites are live and on the air, so that they can't be verified before being broadcast.  But what is said is not fact-checked before it is broadcast.  What the important person said is considered newsworthy because someone of authority and prominence said it.  However, because much of dubious truth is circulating among us, the role of fact-checker has been created.  A fact-checker is sort of a scatologist, one who examines excrement.  The job is to sort out truth from scat.  But a lot of scat passes as information before it is identified as such, and people are making decisions based on scat.  And many have no compunction about telling lies, as long as they confirm their point of view.  To them, facts and truth do not matter.  They prefer their alternative facts.

When it comes to the telling of lies, we have learned that one cannot believe or trust a word that comes from Donald Trump or his staff.  But Trump is not the cause of America's descent into scurrility as a currency of the realm.  He is the result of it.  He is president because he represents the value system embraced by a dominant faction of the nation.  Whereas once about half of the nation desired and advocated slavery as a way of life, now  about half the nation endorses and advocates ignorance, dishonesty and criminality as a right for those who choose them.  Supporters of Don Trump so chose.

The lying of Trump is chosen as a preferred way of life.  People accept it as okay, as a way of conducting the transactions of life.

The United States has experienced a precipitous drop in its reputation among nations.  People in other countries no longer respect or trust us.  The Pew Research Center reports:

In countries where confidence in the U.S. president fell most, America’s overall image has also tended to suffer more. In the closing years of the Obama presidency, a median of 64% had a positive view of the U.S. Today, just 49% are favorably inclined toward America. Again, some of the steepest declines in U.S. image are found among long-standing allies.

Trump represents America to the world.  America chose him and what he stands for.  Americans got what they wanted, a reflection of what they have become.  They say lying is okay.