The "Who-ya-gonna-believe, me-or-your-lyin'-eyes?"argument
One of the things that distinguishes good journalists from ... well, from other types of journalists in particular and other types of people in general is that they tend to rely on evidence, standards, definitions -- discernible reality, in other words.
In the context of the whole world, the fact that other people might not is fine: We'd be a sadder and grumpier group without faith and imagination, and without the visionaries who find a way to make the best of our imaginations real and the earthly saints who manifest that faith and spread it.
Sometimes faith becomes the functional equivalent of reality. That can make the world a much better place, or a much worse one. And the greater the gap between faith (or imagination) and reality when there are real-life consequences either way, the greater the likelihood for trouble.
At least as far back as the Marx Brothers movie "Duck Soup," and possibly as far back as ancient Greece, those caught red-handed doing something they oughtn't have been reduced to a defense along the lines of, "Well, who you gonna believe -- me or your lyin' eyes?" (I think "lyin'" was not in early versions but was added later. To my Southern ears, it works better; your mileage may vary.)
One probably apocryphal story I've heard has the line coming from a man caught in the act of adultery. Another, more plausible though no more supported by evidence, has it coming from a New Orleans politician. (But not, so far as I can tell, Rep. William Jefferson, who might have amended the phrase to read, "Who ya gonna believe, me or my money-stuffed freezer?" But I digress.)
At its base, in this defense a transgressor calls upon a victim/witness/associate to take the transgressor's word over whatever tangible evidence or definition might call the transgressor's word into question, no matter how irrefutable that evidence might be.
It is a plea, in other words, to deny reality, to understand the nature of the people and institutions involved as if that reality does not exist and to act -- or decline to act -- as if that reality does not exist.
Some people are receptive to such pleas. But will I be, if you and I are standing out on the sidewalk and water is puddling in my shoes? If I observe, "It's raining," and my friend says, "No, it's not! Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?" I'm gonna believe my soakin'-wet feet and, thus, my lyin' eyes, Every. Single. Time.
Especially when my reporter ID is hanging around my neck.
