Has truth vanished completely from public life? Is morality and common decency passé? Are we still able to demand integrity and honesty from our leaders?
To add to your list of mendacious leaders, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) uttered 76,544 untruths* in 820 morning press conferences between December 3, 2018 and March 31, 2022, according to the political consultancy SPIN (http://www.spintcp.com/conferenciapresidente/infografia-72/). There have been 15 more press conferences since then. If the average of 93 holds for this period (in fact, the average has risen over time), it would increase the number by 1,395.
By the way, the topic AMLO brings up most often (6,172 times as of February 15, 2022) is corruption (http://www.spintcp.com/conferenciapresidente/infografia-69/), which is consistent with his strong anti-corruption campaign platform. Perhaps the most egregious of his lies, echoing Bolsonaro's claim for Brazil five months previously, was pronounced on March 11, 2021: "There is no more corruption [in Mexico]" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dP6uHeyAiY).
* In early counts the "untruths" were broken down into categories: promises, commitments, non-falsifiable, and false. Of these, approximately 1/7 were "false" as of July 1, 2019 (http://www.spintcp.com/conferenciapresidente/infografia-6/). Using 1/7 to estimate the number of outright lies, we can calculate nearly 11,000 falsehoods through March 11, 2022, an average of 13 per press conference.
To add to your list of mendacious leaders, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO) uttered 76,544 untruths* in 820 morning press conferences between December 3, 2018 and March 31, 2022, according to the political consultancy SPIN (http://www.spintcp.com/conferenciapresidente/infografia-72/). There have been 15 more press conferences since then. If the average of 93 holds for this period (in fact, the average has risen over time), it would increase the number by 1,395.
By the way, the topic AMLO brings up most often (6,172 times as of February 15, 2022) is corruption (http://www.spintcp.com/conferenciapresidente/infografia-69/), which is consistent with his strong anti-corruption campaign platform. Perhaps the most egregious of his lies, echoing Bolsonaro's claim for Brazil five months previously, was pronounced on March 11, 2021: "There is no more corruption [in Mexico]" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dP6uHeyAiY).
* In early counts the "untruths" were broken down into categories: promises, commitments, non-falsifiable, and false. Of these, approximately 1/7 were "false" as of July 1, 2019 (http://www.spintcp.com/conferenciapresidente/infografia-6/). Using 1/7 to estimate the number of outright lies, we can calculate nearly 11,000 falsehoods through March 11, 2022, an average of 13 per press conference.
Good to know. Mendaciousness proliferates. And it may be no wonder that AMLO and Trump were such good buddies! Thanks, Bonnie.