Harry G. Frankfurt, of "On Bullshit" fame, from his book on truth:

Surely it is apparent... that in large part we select the objects that we desire, that we love, and to which we commit ourselves, because of what we believe about them—for instance, that they will increase our wealth or protect our health, or that they will serve our interests in some other way. Hence, the truth or the falsity of the factual statements on which we rely in explaining or in validating our choice of goals and our commitments is inescapably relevant to the rationality of our attitudes and our choices.

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Merriam-Webster:

Truthiness (noun)

1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005)

2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society, January 2006)

For a brief period, when many Americans had tired of the utter mendacity of the Bush administration and its media lapdogs, Stephen Colbert's coinage — "truthiness" — gained national currency.

Nowadays, invoking that term is an uncool as singing "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Or saying "nowadays."

Here is an excellent observation by the Business Pundit:

"MSM (mainstream media) reports and government announcements leave us with a sense that something is off. We try to assuage our unease with online facts, leaks, and answers. That seeking, combined with the mainstream media’s ineffective communication, opens a portal for opportunistic publicity hounds. Like Hal Turner.

Yesterday, Turner announced that he had obtained leaked “bank stress test reults” (sic) from regulators. He pithily stated that “they are very bad.” "

snip.

So over at Talkleft, Big Tent Democrat finds issue with an insinuation at (where else) Kos that Chris Dodd carried AIG's water on the bonus issue due to his being the largest* recipient of their campaign contributions. It was true he was carrying water, but it was Obama and Geithner's.

"Lessig promulgates a false implication - that Senator Chris Dodd acted as he did because of AIG contributions. It is clear now that in fact Dodd acted as he did at the behest of the Obama administration. In fact, in last week's issue of The Economist (p. 29) (before the AIG bonus scandal broke), the following was written:

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