Mickey Kaus thinks so. Special self-parody department of kausfiles.com! Meanwhile my beagle won’t get out of my bed.
ANOTHER REASON TO ADMIRE BUSH: Madeleine Albright takes on his foreign policy. He must be doing something right.
THE JOURNAL AND ETHICS: I get a dressing down from the Wall Street Journal today for my reporting on the Enron pundits. It seems I committed a mortal sin by thinking that the piece I wrote for the Journal on Talk magazine last week was for U.S. rights only. It was only the second time I’ve written for the Journal op-ed page; it was my mistake; I apologized profusely twice; recycling pieces for foreign papers is a completely legitimate source of income. I was even told by an editor there that the tiny matter was now closed. Yet they bring it up as some sort of sin that bars me from commenting on people who have earned up to $100,000 from a criminal corporate racket for work that barely existed or never materialized. It must be one of the pettiest quibbles I’ve ever seen an editorial resort to. In general, though, they have a decent point: disclosure for journalists is more important than the source of funding. But direct funding from corporations for vast amounts for little work is surely stretching this, and funding for direct advocacy just as worrisome. I don’t see why the Journal’s editors can’t see this. Although the Journal actually published columns written by someone directly paid by tobacco companies to write paid propaganda masquerading as journalism, they still think that’s fine as long as it’s disclosed. That’s where we differ. Let’s say journalists were simply paid by corporations directly to sell their products or spin their shares. Wouldn’t that taint the ethic of journalism – even if it was disclosed? If I’m wrong, what exactly is the difference between columns and ad copy? Or between journalism and p.r.? Are there no values apart from market values? That’s where I part company with my libertarian friends. I think there are some public virtues that cannot be reduced to money or disclosure. One of those virtues is an attempt by journalists to keep themselves as far as possible away from direct conflicts of interest, and where they are unavoidable, to disclose fully. Of course, this gets complicated and I don’t believe in policing this for minor infractions or unavoidable conflicts. But surely avoiding situations where vast amounts of cash are offered for little work by dubious corporations is a no-brainer. Seems pretty obvious to me.
GOD AND THE HOMOSEXUAL: If you’re a newcomer to the site from C-SPAN this morning and have emailed me to discuss the Church and homosexuality, I’m afraid it’s impossible for me to respond to the now hundreds of emails. But please take a look at the section on this site devoted to the issue, which may answer some of your questions. This piece may be helpful; and this interview is more eloquent than I was this morning.
JANUARY STATS: 221,000 unique visitors; 681,000 visits. Thanks so much. Make sure to check in on Monday. There’s a whole new section going up – an online book club. Don’t miss it.
The Dish 