Sometimes the Truth Is Not Good Enough with Ed Robinson

Conventional wisdom states that for leaders sincerity and transparency are key to building trust. Not anymore.

One could say that President Donald Trump is authentically false rather than falsely authentic. That would explain the strange appeal of Trump’s off-the-cuff rawness, and why his base doesn’t seem to bother about his, to put it mildly, loose relationship to the truth. Salena Zito observes in The Atlantic: “The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” There is apparently a difference between truthfulness and authenticity.

As for truth, these are interesting times. On the one hand, we’re experiencing its renaissance. Investigative journalism is having a field day in the wake of presidential lies, fake news, and algorithmic manipulation, and subscriptions for the New York Times and Washington Post are soaring.