It presupposes a clarity of mind which they haven’t got

From Letters to an American Lady by C.S. Lewis. This comment seems evergreen and especially pertinent to journalism of our time:

The review is of course a tissue of muddles and direct falsehoods – I don’t say “lies” because the people who write such things are not really capable of lying. I mean, to lie = to say what you know to be untrue. But to know this, and to have the very idea of truth and falsehood in your head, presupposes a clarity of mind which they haven’t got. To call them liars would be as underserved a compliment as to say a dog was bad at arithmetic.