"Journalists, start your skepticism."
That was the tagline of a letter to Romenesko yesterday from David Cay Johnston, a former New York Times writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on tax policy. It's worth a read. Johnston cautions reporters not to "assume that Congress must act instantly, as so many news stories state as if it was an immutable fact," nor to accept "what gullible Congressional leaders, most of them up before the voters in a few weeks, say after being given a closed-door meeting on supposed horrors."
It's more than just a memo to reporters. For all the world-is-going-to-end-because-of-this-fucking-bailout rants I've heard during the last few days, it's refreshing to hear a seasoned professional say: "Ask this question -- are the credit markets really going to seize up?" See? Some people still have hope the world won't end after all: If the problem is toxic mortgages then how come they are still being offered all over the Internet? On the main page AOL generates for me there is an ad for a 1.9% loan (which means you pay that interest rate and the rest of the interest is added to your balance due.) Why oh why or why would taxpayers be bailing out banks that are continuing to sell these toxic loans?
As of now we are, as a group, behaving just as we did the last two times the administration sought to rush through a hastily thought out, ill-conceived plan. Why in the world are we being so gullible and naive? whatever happened to the core value of journalism -- check it out?
Meanwhile, yesterday's big news from Washington was the lawsuit filed by the state Democratic Party to force Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi to change his party preference on the ballot from "prefers GOP party" to "prefers Republican Party." Here's the response from state GOP Republican Party leaders: "This is the act of a desperate incumbent and lawyer seeking to win the election in court by invalidating votes cast for Dino Rossi," said Jill Strait, Rossi spokesperson. "Ballots in Washington state have already been printed and military ballots are in process to soldiers and sailors overseas. If â'ê¬ËGOP' is ruled by the judge to be invalid, then the ballots from military personnel will be invalid. And given that it's likely too late to reprint all of the rest of the ballots in our state, this would make any ballot cast for Dino Rossi invalid. It is very clever - but it's very wrong.
Eric Earling at Sound Politics says Rossi "played by the rules," while Democrats are "basing the lawsuit in part on an Elway poll that is incredibly untrustworthy." The court hearing to decide the spat will be Friday. ...
Cat fight: If you haven't been paying attention to the debate about the upcoming Sound Transit light rail expansion measure, Proposition 1, Larry Lange at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a decent overview of arguments from both sides of the issue. ...
PAC fight: P-I columnist Joel Connelly says the latest findings by the Washington state Public Disclosure Commission about Rossi-backing PACs failing to report contributions shouldn't be dismissed as "political junkie stuff." ...
Derby match: According to the latest SurveyUSA poll, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire and Republican gubernatorial challenger Dino Rossi are essentially tied. ...
Phone run derby: Ever wondered if presidential polls are inaccurate because they only include landlines but not cell phone users? A new study from the Pew Center says "cell phone interviews resulted in slightly more support for Obama and slightly less for McCain." ...
Ka-ching! Jeff Mapes at The Oregonian reports Multnomah County in Oregon (that's where Portland is, folks) is a "reliable ATM for Obama." ...
Ka-boom! The Yakima Herald-Republic continues its annoying trend of using photos that are way too freaking big with today's story about Republican U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings's criticism of the Bush administration bailout plan. ...
Ka-bust! Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat takes a foreclosure tour of Seattle and discovers – surprise, surprise – that the Emerald City was also part of the housing bubble collapse. ...
No way! And finally, here's some news you never saw coming. According to a new list from the Congress of New Urbanism, the Alaska Way Viaduct is the number one urban highway in North America that should be replaced with a surface street. Shocking, I know. ...
