
The Cost of Victory: Why Truth Still Matters in Politics
Clip: 10/21/2025 | 3m 22sVideo has Closed Captions
When winning means sacrificing truth: a candidate’s reckoning with integrity and disinformation.
What happens when victory comes at the expense of truth? In this hypothetical scenario, one candidate has triumphed in a close election, but now faces a reckoning with integrity, and the long view of leadership. Voices across the spectrum examine disinformation, pluralism, and why fact-based decision-making matters more than ever.
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Funding for this program was provided in part by grants from The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation and by a grant from Anne Ray Foundation and by contributions from viewers like you. Thank you. Location furnished by The New York Historical.

The Cost of Victory: Why Truth Still Matters in Politics
Clip: 10/21/2025 | 3m 22sVideo has Closed Captions
What happens when victory comes at the expense of truth? In this hypothetical scenario, one candidate has triumphed in a close election, but now faces a reckoning with integrity, and the long view of leadership. Voices across the spectrum examine disinformation, pluralism, and why fact-based decision-making matters more than ever.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- The returns are in, and ladies and gentlemen, we have a new governor of the State of Pennsylvania.
Congratulations, Governor Severino.
- Thank you very much.
(all clapping) - [Panelist] Yay.
- How does it feel winning in this way?
- Well, Walter, I feel quite convicted by what you said, because you said the heroes are the ones who act with that integrity, even if people aren't gonna ultimately find out one way or the other.
I think that was your message.
So I actually don't feel very good at all.
You wanna win right, you don't wanna win with ever compromising anything of your integrity.
And the fact that this was based on the 10 Commandments issue, I think I would've done it differently, because of what you said.
You have to take the long view, because you said of a biography, when you look back on a person's life, and what my kids would think of what I've done.
Winning an election is just not worth that.
So, thank you for raising that.
(audience clapping) - Governor Landrieu, I'm sorry, former governor Landrieu.
You've heard your opponent express some remorse even though he's won.
How do you feel even though you've lost this campaign?
- I feel fine.
I mean, it's actually happened to me twice before.
For the record, I've won nine races, I've lost two.
- One final question.
In this new age of information when disinformation, misinformation can spread at the speed of light, what can we do better as a people to stand up for the truth?
- It doesn't matter what the algorithm is feeding us.
We can choose what we want to consume.
And if we actually demand that the temperature be lowered and the volume be lowered, and we just shine a light, perhaps that gets us to a much better place than where we are, because I do think it goes back to the 17-year-old who's almost the original victim who would act in that way because of the chaos that we have fed him.
- There's too much information coming in without folks actually taking the time, putting it away, and letting it reverberate, and reacting too quickly and letting things escalate.
We have really gotta figure out a way to slow things down, think about them, question everything, and be more open-minded.
And I would say open-hearted to people that don't think like us.
It's part of being a pluralistic society.
It's part of making sure that everybody has room to speak, everybody has room to talk, everybody feels like they had their say and negotiating these things out so it's not a zero-sum game.
A Candidate’s Moment of Reckoning
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/21/2025 | 4m 15s | A fake video, a high-stakes call, and an election on the line. Will truth or strategy win? (4m 15s)
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Clip: 10/21/2025 | 3m 7s | Social media spreads voices—but does it spread truth? The battle for facts is far from over. (3m 7s)
Faith, Politics, and Media: A Classroom Showdown
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 10/21/2025 | 5m 8s | When a classroom poster becomes a flashpoint—how should media handle the heat? Watch the clip. (5m 8s)
Game-Changing Confession and a Parent’s Nightmare
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Clip: 10/21/2025 | 5m 38s | On election eve, a mother learns her son staged a viral stunt—what happens next? (5m 38s)
Truth vs. Politics: An Election Eve Dilemma
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Clip: 10/21/2025 | 5m 43s | Hours before polls close, a candidate faces a choice: truth or power? (5m 43s)
BREAKING the DEADLOCK: Truth Under Fire
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Preview: 10/1/2025 | 1m 14s | Facing a gripping hypothetical dilemma, a panel of experts reckons with social media and truth. (1m 14s)
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Funding for this program was provided in part by grants from The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation and by a grant from Anne Ray Foundation and by contributions from viewers like you. Thank you. Location furnished by The New York Historical.