These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.
Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!
What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?
Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.
And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.
If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.
But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.
Please read the entire essay. The above only gives you the flavor. I am not saying that blogs are objective sources of news and facts. I am saying that the once respected job of a journalist as the guardian of full public disclosure has degenerated into the fully partisan spin doctor. There are sides to every story that are being intentionally left unsaid. Blogs are trying to fill that gap.
(H/T to David Alexander for the link)
4 comments:
Wow, Mr Card's essay is fantastic, a very needed call for accountablity.
And he is a democrat.
Remember that the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress from 1994-2001, and the House from 1994-2006—in other words, during the time when, according to Card, the political decisions at the root of this "Congress-caused crisis" were being made. I don't see how the GOP can possibly claim clean hands.
On the flip side, Card does a solid job of pointing out the Democrats' complicity, the fact that this is not a crisis of the Bush administration's making, and the media's hypocrisy in giving the Democrats (and Obama in particular) a free pass.
Peace,
--Peter
Peter,
I agree that there is plenty of blame to go around in this current economic crisis. I think the gist of Card's argument is that we will not get the full facts on any issue in the current news climate.
Catholic Mom,
Fair enough--and he's right on target there.
Peace,
--Peter
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