This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

[Yes, that's the title of a book by Al Franken.]

­— Video's claim that BLM sparked devastating Oregon fires goes up in smoke — Paul Rolly | The Salt Lake Tribune

"Rep. Ken Ivory's American Lands Council seems to be taking a page out of The Center for Medical Progress' playbook, releasing a misleading video to demonize an entity the right-wing hates. ...

" ... Now comes the Oregon chapter of the American Lands Council, a nonprofit that signs up organizations and local governments for a membership fee to fight for the transfer of public lands from the feds to states, has released a video on Facebook that appears to show U.S. Bureau of Land Management agents lighting fires in southern Oregon cattle country that blazed out of control, charring more than 700,000 acres, killing dozens of cows, burning several structures owned by ranchers and threatening the community of Frenchglen.

"Trouble is, the video's claim is bogus. ..."

— A chance for Utah to do right by Planned Parenthood — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial

"Gov. Gary Herbert's decision to pull federal funding from the Utah chapter of Planned Parenthood was based on a lie. That we already knew.

"Now we find out that that lie was, at least according to a Texas grand jury, orchestrated by people who committed crimes in the process of fabricating their evidence.

"That news should, of course, be the political cover Herbert needs to reverse his decision, end an expensive and embarrassing lawsuit, and restore the state contracts that paid Planned Parenthood some $200,000 a year in federal funds to provide useful health services — not abortions — to the people of this state. ..."

— For Planned Parenthood, justice seldom gets more poetic — Leonard Pitts Jr. | The Miami Herald

" 'A lie can get halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.'

"That nugget of wisdom dates from the 1800s, i.e., decades before anyone ever heard of the Internet — much less Fox 'News.'

"If a lie traveled that fast in the 19th century, you can only imagine its speed in the 21st, when media and the World Wide Web have given it wings. Indeed, in 2016, the lie is so broadly and brazenly told as to cower truth itself and to render impotent and faintly ridiculous the little voice insisting, against all evidence, that facts matter.

"It seems increasingly obvious that to many of us, they simply don't. Not anymore. ..."

— Dark days — East Oregonian (Pendleton, Ore.) Editorial

[On the ongoing standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge]

" ... We live in a snap judgment world, and the Internet doesn't have time for facts. They can be made up to fit a narrative, and then passed along and shared enough times that they begin to carry an air of truth. It's the telephone game on steroids, and few will stick around (and then trust) what is eventually released by law enforcement through the slow-moving wheels of the justice department. ..."