Journalism is to politics as accounting is to business. False even-handedness weakens accountability.
Ezra Klein gets it right. Journalism is to politics as accounting is to business. The journalistic establishment is failing to use Generally Accepted Accountability Principles, thereby enabling political malfeasance.
Of course, the problem recursive: criticizing the press for being excessively even-handed - for blaming Democrats and Republicans alike when the misconduct is overwhelmingly on the Republican side - is itself perceived as not even-handed, and thus calls the honest reporter’s professional bona fides into question.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
Politicians lie when their positions are difficult to defend honestly. So for example the GOP lies when it defends military spending and tax cuts for millionaires, and Democrats lie when they push immigration amnesty and endless education subsidies.
Which party is more dishonest depends on what the issue of the day is.
He-said-she-said notwithstanding, IMHO the corporate media have constructed this situation on purpose.
Next time Ezra goes on the sunday talk shows he can bring this up……….just sayin. Nothing will happen until the democrats and liberals and progressives start treating the MSM the way republicans do.
There’s always the other meaning of the acronym.
I have it on good authority that this whole fiasco is actually a clever ploy to defeat Al Qaeda. 😉
Mark seems to have a higher opinion of accounting than journalism. I don’t, and my opinion of journalism is probably no higher than Mark’s.