"You Can't Handle The Truth"

It's a reporter's nightmare.

A source knowingly gives you false information in order to subvert the search for truth or hides their identity as a way of masking less than honorable agendas and motivations.

And you publish or air that false information - usually in good faith, because you think the source is honest - thus perpetuating lies and misinformation.

At best, you look silly for not realizing you were "being played."

Something like that happened to me recently.

A man on the street, who gave his name as "Phil Davis" of Westwood, MA, agreed to speak with me briefly following a Veterans for Peace / International Socialist Movement protest against Egyptian attempts to stop an aid convoy from crossing the border into Gaza. He was very angry at the protesters; in fact anyone who would support helping the people living in Gaza, because the elected leadership of that territory come from Hamas. And Hamas, according to this man, (and frankly the governments of Israel and the United States as well) is a terrorist organization.

Now, we can debate endlessly what constitutes "terrorism:" from the plagues bestowed upon native North Americans by European explorers and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, all the way to the Katyusha rockets fired across the Gazan and West Bank borders towards Israel.

The point, I believe, is that in order to have an effective, meaningful conversation about differences in political opinion we have to trust each other.

However, "Phil Davis," rather than engendering trust acts like a bully, and goes way beyond the point of ever engaging in rational conversation.

"Phil Davis" it turns out, is Hillel Stavis, former owner of Wordsworth Books in Harvard Square, an active member of the political correctness pushing organizations CAMERA and The David Project, and self-appointed crusader on behalf of all things Israel.

I know this, because three sources came forward, after listening to my recorded interview with this man (www.openmediaboston.org/node/796) to say that "Phil" sounded just like "Hillel."

It's true, and the following video (http://tinyurl.com/mtcysy) convinces me that it's the same person.

Why am I spending so much time on this? Because Hillel Stavis goes from one event to another; from the Cambridge Peace Commission one day to a Harvard lecture the next, trying to impose "righteous" thinking on anyone with whom he disagrees.

Except, it turns out, the truth is much less important to "Phil/Hillel" than his pro-Israel agenda. So how can anyone believe anything he says, ever?

Sometimes, all we can hope for, in the words of Carl Bernstein, is the "best available version of the truth." However, Hillel and his ilk are manipulators, bending reality to fit their political world view.

Hmmm, sounds awfully like a recent former president and vice-president and their policy towards the truth.

If I were leading any discussion at any forum on any topic and Hillel Stavis raised his hand to speak, I would immediately ask him to declare his fealty to veracity; then take everything he says with a grain of salt.

So I've got egg on my face. I got duped by a professional sheister. But in my own defense, I did everything I promised. I published his quotes and aired our entire conversation on the radio.

The same integrity can't be ascribed to those who would lie and cheat to get their way.