Tom Lehrer, Will You Set This to Music?

 

I’m in bed with the Devil.

I’m raising the dead.

For OUR good, none other,

I’m risking my head.

 

Hair of Walter Cronkite,

Nail of Chet Huntley,

Blood of Mr. Murrow,

Bone of Kid Brinkley,

Tooth of Jim Lehrer,

Toe of Robbie MacNeil.

Toss into the cauldron and

Boil ’til real.

 

No fake truth;

No false history;

No lies from the jaws

Of fox toothed witchery.

Before Good night and good luck,

Murrow warned us. He said:

When news is entertainment,

Truth is truly dead.

 

“To be persuasive we must be believable;

to be believable we must be credible;

to be credible we must be truthful.”

Edward R. Murrow

 

This is London.  This is Paris.

This is D.C.  This is Rome.

This is Jerusalem and Moscow.

It’s yours.  It’s mine.  Our only home.

It’s here we raise our children:

Hatred, Fear, Distrust, and Greed.

Home is where the heart is

And where grow lies like weed.

 

“The speed of communications

is wondrous to behold,” said Murrow.

He added, And it speeds the lies

That morph to truth tomorrow.

Hitler and Goebbels,

Both onboard with that.

The Nazis could pull lies

Like scarves from a hat.

 

Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand,

Mirror, mirror on the wall;

Wer ist die schonste im ganzen Land?

Who is the fairest of them all?

“Our job is only to hold up the mirror…”

Said Walter to us folks;

Not to distort the image, certainly

Not to make news, nor jokes.

 

Should you care about the truth,

Should you fear what lies ahead,

Don’t look to me for guidance.

The Devil forsook my bed.

Can’t blame Him for Trump

Though He left me in confusion.

Like the rest of you guys,

I live in Truth/Lie fission/fusion.

 

“To be persuasive we must be believable;

to be believable we must be credible;

to be credible we must be truthful.”

Edward R. Murrow

 

“And that’s the way it is.”  Walter Cronkite