Bill Kristol wrote yesterday over at the Weekly Standard blog:

Today, on Fox News Sunday, Juan Williams came up with a fine formulation, in the context of the Henry Louis Gates imbroglio:
“But in this situation, the president spoke without the facts. And so you can’t have a teachable moment if it’s based on a lie.”
Amid all the blather about “teachable moments,” I don’t recall anyone else making this simple but profound observation: “You can’t have a teachable moment if it’s based on a lie.” Another way of putting it might be to say that it’s not a “moment” that’s teachable, it’s the truth that’s teachable.
So a moment in which everyone colludes to obscure the truth (which seems characteristic of most “teachable moments” in contemporary America) is not a moment of teaching; it’s a moment of deception, of misdirection, of obfuscation. Call it an obfuscatable moment.

It’s a nice thought, though it’s oddly naive for Bill Kristol — not exactly a political ingenue — to be making it (or seconding it). Of course you can have a “teachable moment” based on a lie. It’s just that you ought not, in no small part because doing so often teaches a lie.

The history of the left is full of such moments (as is the history of mankind). A great many famous “teachable moments” were based upon less than whole truths. That’s because mere “factual correctness” is often not a high priority for activists. Indeed, some hard-bitten cynics — with more jaundiced eyes than Bill and Juan’s — might argue that the truth of a specific alleged event is a very minor concern for many on the Left when teaching a “higher truth” is on the agenda. Al Sharpton hardly cared — much — whether Tawana Brawley was in fact raped, he was interested in “building a movement.” The details of Matthew Shepherd’s death mattered to many, but not nearly so much as rolling out a teachable moment. JFK’s assassination became a teachable moment about alleged right-wing hatreds coursing through the American body politic, even though he was murdered by a leftwinger.

These are just a few examples off the top of my head. I’m sure we could have a grand contest around here to come up with all of the “teachable moments” that have taken off from a platform of untruth.

The lesson, I think, is that every moment is a teachable moment and someone — on the Right or the Left — will always try to fit the facts to their agenda.

Update: From a reader:

Jonah,
I think you’re making the same point as Bill Kristol. Here what he said:
So a moment in which everyone colludes to obscure the truth (which seems characteristic of most “teachable moments” in contemporary America)
You say that we’ve often had teaching moments based on lies. Bill agrees, and suggests we use a different adjective to describe them accurately.

Hmm. That’s not how I read it at first. But I think the reader’s probably right. Damn jet lag. Glad to return to my conviction that Bill’s not too starry-eyed.