William Safire - "Habitual Liar"

For some reason William Safire was a highly respected conservative opinion columnist at the New York Times after being Richard Nixon's speechwriter. He also wrote other columns on language and writing. He wrote a highly influential column, completely unsubstantiated, that Hillary Clinton had always been a serial "habitual liar" and corrupted everyone around her to lie as well. The column was never substantiated and was itself lies although Safire may have believed it. He never apologized or confessed that the column had been proven wrong. Later he was a leader in the allegations of Al Gore's "habitual lies and exagerations" and strongly supported George W Bush for president. Once Bush was president Safire spread the lies of the Bush administration that Iraq was a threat to Israel and the United States, the big lies it was violating the peace treaty and possessed illegal weapons of mass destruction.

Safire made a long career out of being a talented liar skilled with words whose favored tactic was accusing others of lying. The widespread belief that Hillary Clinton and Al Gore were completely untrustworthy can be traced back to him. His lies and the tactic of always calling liberals and Democrats and convenient outsiders serial liars were repeated by the conservative media and Republicans and repeated often enough to become "common knowledge". His numerous writings about Iraq led to a an illegal unnecessary disastrous war based on lies. The widespread belief that climate change is a lie caused by lying scientists can be traced back to his tactics used on Al Gore, the first well known popular figure to warn of climate change.

When you think of lies and the lying liars who tell them always place Safire near the top of the list.

My simply writing this history will be shocking to many, as corporate media and the Republican Party gave him the status of elderly beloved spokesman before his death.

More of Safire's misdeeds can be found in this column by Eric Boehlert.