The Season of the Fabulists

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Publications across America are revealing evidence this week that New York Rep.-elect George Santos is an entirely fabricated person, a fabulist. I’d call him a pollster cyborg.

First, the North Shore Leader wrote what no one in the media caught - New York’s newest congressman - Santos had this “inexplicable rise” in reported net worth, from nothing to $11 million two years later. The Washington Post broke the story today. WaPo reprised the Leader in this quote:

“Interestingly, Santos shows no U.S. real property in his financial disclosure, although he has repeatedly claimed to own ‘a mansion in Oyster Bay Cove’ on Tiffany Road; and ‘a mansion in the Hamptons’ on Dune Road,” managing editor Maureen Daly wrote in the Leader. “For a man of such alleged wealth, campaign records show that Santos and his husband live in a rented apartment, in an attached rowhouse in Queens.

Santos, supposedly a second generation immigrant from Brazil bills himself as the “full embodiment of the American Dream,” according to the New York Times. Its investigation revealed Santos pillaged his campaign for $40,000 worth of air travel. He claims on his resume he worked for two premier Wall Street firms, but no proof he was ever there. He invented a degree from Baruch College and claimed his mother died in the Holocaust. She died in 2016, but not before he was convicted of stealing money from her employer in Brazil.

You could say he’s a cyborg, an artificial intelligence creature designed to meet every poll on the planet. And you wonder what’s creating brain fog in people? Reality isn’t trusted.

Leaders of the conservative training camp, “Turning Point,” or another right wing group needed a champion to ace it over a Democrat in a Democratic district. Republicans already proved they could come close to kissing a victory with a lying football player in Georgia. They could prop up a blonde with big boobs and an even bigger mouth to become a leading right-thinking Congresswoman. Why not an entirely made up person?

Cyborg does sound so science fiction-ish. But Fabulist is just fabulous. It harkens back to the Horatio Alger stories of impoverished boys who became outstanding business leaders by virtuous behavior and “bootstraps.” It is publicist Kellyanne Conway using “alternative facts” as a way to airbrush Donald Trump’s outright lies.

The one good resource to combat the fabulists, is good journalism. People who live their lives to write the truth. But their ranks are plummeting because the truth isn’t as “fabulous” as great liars. The number of seasoned journalists has declined by 60 percent since 2005 according to government statistics cited by the Washington Post.

Research from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern Universe found that on average two newspapers are disappearing in the U.S. every week. The nation has lost more than a quarter of its newspapers since 2005 and is on track to lose one-third by 2025.

If you want click bait on Facebook, twitter trill, you need Horatio Alger, or Santos. He’s cut of the same cloth the tailor used in “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” He supposedly hails from the Hampton’s. He’s just 32 and already a hard core conservative. Voters on both sides of the aisle would appreciate that he’s not a drag queen at the library or a Pride Fest organizer but polite gay in blue blazers.

Here’s a report from the North Shore Leader. They had it first. If we don’t support journalism, we might get a whole Congress of very electable cyborgs. The polls will love it.

https://www.theleaderonline.com/single-post/the-leader-told-you-so-us-rep-elect-george-santos-is-a-fraud-and-wanted-criminal

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/29/north-shore-leader-santos-scoop/