Pete Seeger

Check out this little ditty from 1992—words by Calvin Trillin, put to music by Pete Seeger. (It says here that it may not feel overdue, or even especially outdated, 32 years later.) Listen:

When something in my history is found
Which contradicts the views that I propound
Or shows that I perhaps am not the guy I claim to be,
Here’s what I usually do.

I lie.
I simply, boldly falsify.
I look the other feller in the eye
And just deny, deny, deny.
I lie.

Seeger, whose decades of folk singing and songwriting trafficked in social activism—agitating for international disarmament, civil rights, workers’ rights and environmental causes—latched onto that pithy poem by Trillin, the celebrated journalist and humorist who for years has served as The Nation’s “Deadline Poet,” regularly penning rhymes on current issues.

The piece cited here was titled “The Ross Perot Guide to Answering Embarrassing Questions,” sizing up the Texas billionaire who twice ran for President (in 1992 and ’96) and who reportedly used such tactics as forcing his campaign’s volunteers to sign loyalty oaths.

Hmmm.

Trillin, now 89, still contributes relevant analyses to such prestigious publications as The New Yorker and The Nation. Seeger died in 2014 at 94. Second verse:

I don t apologize. Not me. Instead
I say I never said the things I said
Nor did the things some people saw me do
When confronted by some things they know are true.

I lie.
I simply, boldly falsify.
I look the other feller in the eye
And just deny, deny, deny.
I lie.

A 1992 Newsweek story had described Perot as “a supersalesman for whom the beauty of the deal is more important than the accuracy of the words used to close it. “

Another echo there, no? The beauty of the deal (the art of the deal).

At the time, Perot didn’t exactly release a firehose of constant and public prevarications, which seems to have been a winning strategy of 2024, but there are some commonalities that can’t be avoided. Newsweek declared then that what “protects and enhances Perot…is TV. In the talk-show format he favors, nailing a candidate for lying is next to impossible….On the ABC News town meeting, for instance, Perot, denying much involvement in a Fort Worth airport project, told Peter Jennings: ‘I never once came to Fort Worth to lobby. Rest my case. Call the mayor tomorrow and check it out.’

“When ABC News called the mayor the next day to check it out, the mayor said that Perot (as well as his son) had indeed lobbied him in Fort Worth. For months, Newsweek and others have reported that Perot hadn’t been candid about his role in this project.”

Here’s more from that old Newsweek report which now seems so familiar: “That’s one of the paradoxes of television: appearing honest is more important on TV than actually being honest.”

This sort of thing, journalism vs. An Prominent Public Figure, recalls the Thomas Jefferson quote that, if he had to choose between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Back to you, Calvin and Pete:

I hate those weasel words some slickies use
To blur their past or muddy up their views
Not me. I’m blunt. One thing that makes me great
Is that I’ll never dodge nor obfuscate.

I lie.
I simply boldly falsify.
I look the other feller in the eye
And just deny, deny, deny.
I lie.

Just happened to hear a recording of Seeger warbling that tune the other day. Sung in the same key as…well, I think you know.