No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

How do we know what our national leaders are doing?

We have an administration for whom the Truth is something to be hidden if it is politically inconvenient. Dick Cheney is still fighting to keep from revealing who was at his meetings before the Presidents Energy Policy was released. Bush and his team were fully aware that the "evidence" supporting the allegation that Iraq had attempted to buy Yellow-cake Uranium in Africa was forged well before the State of the Union Address, so they said that was what British Intelligence had determined. It was a flat lie and they knew it.

The EPA had a report that included what was known about Global Warming. Since a sizeable section of Bush's constituency does not believe in Global Warming, the White House removed those reference from the report before it was released. This was a political action, without any consideration of the science involved, because it was politically inconvenient. The administration has cancelled routine economic reports because they revealed bad news, such as the report of business closings in December 2002. Such increases in unemployment are not politically palatable.

In short, this White House cannot be trusted.

So obviously this means that our media needs to be more investigative and careful about what they publish. They really need to look behind the mirror and let the public know what is true, what is false, and how many of the things they publish severely spin the truth, right?

Unfortunately, They don't. Susan J. Douglas, writing for In These Times, asserts: "It would hardly be an overstatement to say that the late spring and early summer of 2003 have been one of the lowest points in US media history. She talks about the Jayson Blair scandal, but says the "real disgrace" is the way the media seems to being reading a script handed out by "Team Bush."

This really is not a good time for the US either in politics or in the US media.
posted by Richard at 1:04 PM