Back in the day Pierre Salinger, JFK's press secretary, got into a controversy over whether it was ever appropriate to lie to the American public. That's the way I remember it, though this Daily Beast article seems to say it was Arthur Sylvester, another aide. Anyway, it was in the context of the Cuba Missile crisis. I thought I remembered Salinger telling the press that Kennedy had a cold which caused him to cancel a campaign trip to Chicago, when in fact the missiles had been discovered and the administration was figuring out what to do.
Anyhow, people were shocked that the government could and would lie to the public. Again today it seems we're shocked to find out that Dr. Fauci was lying to us back in February. He was saying don't bother with masks, they don't do much good, when the fact was the US didn't have masks enough for health professionals and the public.
As an ex-bureaucrat I often side with the bureaucracy more than most, and I do here.
Democrats may claim the people are mature and will react well to being told the truth, but I think conservatives with their suspicion of people are closer to the mark in some cases, as here.
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