The liar says he tells the truth and those who call his lies are liars. Greeks rhetoricians called this device the liar’s paradox.
The New York Times explicitly acknowledged the liar’s paradox in a recent headline, “New Press Aid Vowed Never to Lie. That Was the First Lie” (May 2, 2020, print edition p. A22). But the Times quickly got cold feet, revising the headline for the digital edition to “‘I Will Never Lie to You,’ McEnany Says in First White House Briefing: But Kayleigh McEnany, the president’s fourth press secretary, found that vow tested almost immediately.”
In a conversation with reporter Mary Louise Kelly and NPR’s senior vice president for news, Michael Oreskes, NPR News makes clear that its policy is not to use the word “lies” when referring to blatant lying by Popular-Vote-Loser Trump and his aides. There has been much commentary on how the mediocracy contributed to the Trump election coup and this admission confirms that NPR is using a conscious strategy of doublespeak.
The New York Times meets the liar's paradox
Caught in Trump's trap
The liar says he tells the truth and those who call his lies are liars. Greeks rhetoricians called this device the liar’s paradox.
The New York Times explicitly acknowledged the liar’s paradox in a recent headline, “New Press Aid Vowed Never to Lie. That Was the First Lie” (May 2, 2020, print edition p. A22). But the Times quickly got cold feet, revising the headline for the digital edition to “‘I Will Never Lie to You,’ McEnany Says in First White House Briefing: But Kayleigh McEnany, the president’s fourth press secretary, found that vow tested almost immediately.”