May 27, 2022 2 min read

This is in response to Dave Ball’s May 15 op-ed, “Truth: Clorox to Democrats.” Unlike Donald Trump, who suggested Clorox could be used as internal medicine against viruses, Democrats know that it can be a strong and useful cleaner. The referenced commentary could use serious cleaning.

It is true that right-leaning media has worked to discredit the document known as the Steele Dossier and that much of the information in it has not been verified. However, some of it has proven to be true, and Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with MI6, stands by it. It was not, as Trump supporters have claimed, the reason for investigations by U.S. intelligence into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. It is a fact the U.S. intelligence concluded that Russia did interfere, and that interference was intended to help get Trump elected. Russian attempts to affect elections around the world are not a hoax.

It is also a fact that Donald Trump Jr. and other high-level members of Trump’s 2016 campaign met with Russian “lobbyists” in Trump Tower in June 2016. It is true that another president’s son, Hunter Biden, has had issues and appears to have taken advantage of his father’s position to obtain jobs. However, Hunter’s laptop, though often used to suggest some grave sin, is a questionable source of shady origin that involves a lot more smoke than fire. It has never been shown that Hunter had any inappropriate influence on his father’s actions.

It is false to claim any political views other than your own are lies. It is false to claim that the left is controlling the news media while Fox network commentators, in news-like formats, promote right-wing conspiracies. It is false to suggest that social media is controlled by the left when Facebook has been a major broadcaster of right-wing misinformation. Many people from all political parties recognize that for us all to benefit from free speech we need to do something about false speech.

It is tragic that on a weekend when many people died in mass shootings likely caused by extreme lies on media outlets about replacement theory, Ball’s comments would choose to deny the need for some check on the spreading of lies.

Donald Fitch

Amity