To the editor:

You discover your car has more miles than show on the odometer or a false charge on your credit card. Lies have a reason; someone wants something they can’t get with the truth. The mechanic tells you your brakes are bad when they’re not. A kid lies to get what he wants. Lies are always about getting someone to do something they wouldn’t if they knew the truth.

They said Obama’s trip to India was costing $2 billion, $200 million a day. They said 2,000 people were sipping champagne at the five-star Taj Mahal Palace Luxury Hotel, the streets filled with motorcycles and limousines, dozens of airplanes buzzing and 34 warships swarming the Indian rivers and Ocean! Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachman said so on CNN, and Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly and the rest echoed.

Was it true? Of course not. Turns out the only source was an anonymous provincial Indian official. There was no one-tenth of the U.S. Navy, no daily cost greater than the war in Afghanistan, no 2,000 people and no Taj Mahal Luxury Hotel that does not even exist. But Bachman, Beck, Hannity and O’Reilly all said so.

Was it just a mistake, or did they make it all up? Have you heard them retract or apologize? What did they want that they couldn’t get with the truth? Do we chalk it up to politics and forget about it?

I hope not. Normally, we remember when people deceive us — at least long enough to stop listening.

William Skepnek,

Lawrence