Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

Meridian Magazine ^ | Thursday, October 23, 2008 | Orson Scott Card

[Retired_Navy_CTI]

Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them...

[Retired_Navy_CTI]

To the point. Mr. Card not only chastises the nation's print media for its dishonesty and distortion of the facts, but also explains the cause of the economic crisis in a way that anyone can understand and lays the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Democratic Congress. And this coming from a Democrat. Slowly, the tide is turning.

[Clintons Are White Trash]

They just couldn’t help themselves and now they are looked at with the same disdain and own the same aura of dishonesty as attorneys.

[flowerplough]

Last honest reporter? Too late. Ain’t none. Those lights’ll stay on.

[flowerplough]

oops. I meant that the lights will stay off. Idiot me.

[Volunteer]

This article was great. It just cuts through the lies and lays it out for all to see.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

WelcomeTo FreeRepublic!

[Castigar]

Absolutey Freekin’ Oustanding Article!

[VRWCRick]

This article was read in its entirety on Rush Limbaugh’s show yesterday. Absolutely essential reading for all of us going to the voting booth.

[wmileo]

I read the entire article. It is already too late for MSM and Newspaper Journalism in this country to reform. The only hope we have is that eventually the news divisions of ABC, NBC, CBS, will die. Then The same for the printed media such as the NYT, LAT,Washington Post, etc. The only thing left will be talk radio and the Internet for national news stories such as the one cited here.

If the Democrats promote the Fairness Doctrine in talk radio and the Internet, then let's face the facts once and for all time.

If the American People will not fight back using the means provided to those who live in a free republic, there will be no free republic and we will be transformed from the USA to the United States of Venezuela to the Republic of Cuba to the Republic of Zimbabwe.

I just worked up an appetite with this one. I better satisfy it before big brother tries to tell me what I can and can not eat.

[CSM]

Self ping for later read.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Link to original article in The Rhinoceros Times