In the same vein as the rueful post from two days ago, Ethics Alarms offers this excerpt from today’s Sunday Times without further comment, because none should be necessary…
Month: May 2023
More On Disgraced Ex-U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins: “The Dark Underbelly Of The Intersection Of Politics And Media”
Fortunately, Boston still has surviving conservative competitor of the dominant Boston Globe—you know, that heroic newspaper portrayed in “Spotlight.” If it didn’t, it’s quite likely no news media sources would publicize the disturbing unholy alliance between the corrupt U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, a brazenly unethical prosecutor pushed into power by the Democratic Party, and Massachusetts’ most influential news source.
The Boston Herald may be struggling, but it performed a public service by revealing the Globe’s alliance with Rollins, whose fall Ethics Alarms discussed here. The conservative paper cursed to try to survive in a one party city and state reports today,
“No mercy. Finish him,” Rollins demanded to Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo in one of their text exchanges about Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden, whose campaign they were trying to torpedo….The two conspired – with the Boston Globe as willing accomplice – to tilt the Democratic D.A. primary in Arroyo’s favor by trying to smear Hayden to show he was somehow under federal investigation, texts and emails show….The Globe actually ran three stories about Hayden using Rollins as an anonymous source.
...That’s why it’s so important for reporters to know the personal agendas of anonymous stories and to check out everything they tell you. Journalists like to think of themselves as using lofty ethical standards but when it comes to political or investigative journalism the sausage-making can be unseemly. The Rollins probe has slimed an untrustworthy press and feeds into why an already cynical public hates and doesn’t trust the media.
The twin investigative reports about Rollins also showed how dangerous it is for the public and media to glorify and lionize public officials. When Rollins threw herself an elaborate swearing-in ceremony over a year ago at the federal courthouse in Boston, both Democrats and Republicans rushed to praise her as a “trailblazer” – as the Boston Globe called her – and predicted greatness for her.
Amusingly, one of those who was effusive in her praise for Rollins was Massachusetts’ spectacularly unethical Democratic Senator, Elizabeth Warren, aka “Fauxahautus,” who raved, “She has the values, the vision, and the courage to be an outstanding US attorney!” Among Rollins’ values was blatant politicizing of the law for Democratic gain as well as her own.The Herald notes that Rollins would have probably gotten away with her unethical election tampering and remain a U.S. Attorney today if she hadn’t attended a Democratic Party fundraiser where a Boston Herald reporter saw her and reported her presence.That flagrant ethical breach, for which Rollins falsely claimed claimed she had prior approval, triggered the ethics investigations by the Inspector General and Office of Special Counsel that ended her tenure.
Now that she has resigned in disgrace, the Globe is back to playing objective journalism again, issuing stories and columns condemning Rollins. It has not, of course, condemned its own complicity in her machinations.
The lesson of this relatively under-reported scandal is that while the Russian Collusion hoax, as revealed by the Durham Reports, was a national collaborative effort by Democrats, corrupt government officials and the biased news media to tamper with democracy, the same rotten alliance is hard at work undermining democracy at the state and local levels as well. What is desperately needed is a non-partisan watch-dog organization that fingers and exposes news media corruption, awarding the opposite of the Pulitzers (which, being politically biased themselves, has not retracted its awards to the Washington Post ad New York Times for their false and partisan coverage of “Russiagate.”) Such negative awards would have to be monthly rather than yearly, so frequently do journalists today engage in propaganda and disinformation.
Maybe Elon Musk, if he has any money to spare after his sputtering efforts to restore free speech to Twitter, can install such a system. Exposure and shame seem to be the only weapons we have against “the enemies of the people.”
“The Ethicist” Tackles Diversity Casting in “Fiddler On The Roof”
I have to weigh in on this one, having dealt with non-traditional casting as a stage director, an artistic director of a professional theater, and as an ethicist.
Not following Ethics Alarms, an inquirer enmeshed in amateur theater had to resort to Kwame Anthony Appiah for advice regarding a controversy roiling a “well-regarded community theater.” “The director proposing the production has committed himself to colorblind casting,” the letter explains. “Others involved say that, in view of the Jewish community the play is about, they would consider this to be a cultural appropriation. How should we approach this conflict in values?”
Ethics Quote Of The Week: Prof. Glenn Reynolds
“If you need counseling over being “misgendered,” you’re too mentally fragile to handle the diplomatic interests of the United States. Get another job.”
—-Conservative law professor, pundit and blogger Glenn Reynolds, making the required observation on this ridiculous story:
Because the State Department has nothing more important to spend its money on, it is “testing a new feature that will provide users with the option to include their preferred pronouns in their Global Address List profile.” Unfortunately, do to human error, the feature went live, and many State Department employees had randomly assigned pronouns added to their profiles. Men were given female pronouns and vice versa, due to what was termed a “pronoun glitch.” Emails from colleagues suddenly included random pronouns, like, “She/her/hers” and “He/Him/His” in the “from” line. As Colonel Kurtz would say…
The State Department apologized profusely to those who were “triggered, and—I’m not kidding, now—is offering free therapy to “any employee who feels hurt or upset as a result of this unfortunate mistake,” according to an internal email that went out to employees on yesterday.
From The Res Ipsa Loquitur Files…
Bad manners. Miserable etiquette. Disrespect.
It was not enough that Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman continued to stand for election despite obvious and possibly irreparable cognitive impairment. Once in the Senate, Fetterman cannot muster sufficient respect for the institution, his colleagues, his state and his country to dress appropriately for official appearances.
He is, to be blunt, a slob.
There is no excuse for such conduct. Yes, I have some compassion for Fetterman, who is something of a mutant; fitting a suit to his Frankensteinian frame can’t be easy. I’m sure business dress is uncomfortable for him, but he is literally a representative of the United States government. Expecting a U.S. Senator to display sufficient dignity in the role he sought and accepted is not unreasonable.
So far, the only members of Congress to criticize Fetterman have been Republicans, which I take to be solid evidence that the GOP is the only party that believes minimal adherence to standards of decorum are important factors in engendering public trust. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer should tell Fetterman to dress appropriately or stay home.
(Why should I even have to write this?)
CNN’s Internal War Over The Trump Townhall Shows How Corrupt And Dangerous U.S. Journalism Has Become
Of all the offensive, obnoxious and outrageous things Donald Trump has said or tweeted, none infuriated progressives more than his calling the news media the “enemies of the people.” This is ironic, because nothing he’s ever said was more true or important to express.
Ace of Spades, the conservative blogging provocateur who is often as incisive as he is inflammatory, issued an impressive examination of what is transpiring at CNN in the wake of last week’s Trump “townhall.” He predicts, as others are predicting, that CNN chief Chris Licht’s days are numbered because the programming went against the pure, near-MSNBC level of full-throated Democratic propaganda CNN has been selling as “news” for more than a decade. It seems clear—and it really shouldn’t be surprising—that the audience CNN has nurtured by slanting its reporting isn’t interested in opposing views, perspective or objective analysis. Thus there has been a sudden drop in CNN ratings following the Trump event similar to the exodus from Fox News following the removal of its demagogue-in-chief, Tucker Carlson. Both migrations are evidence of ethics corruption, but of the two, punishing CNN for what once would have been considered responsible and necessary journalism is the more ominous.
Ace’s various references reveal, among other things…
Incompetent Elected Official Of The Month: Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Cal)
That clip from yesterday has “gone viral,” as it should. It is also signature significance for an incompetent member of Congress and a party with no ethical standards.
First of all, why the Democrats think it is responsible or wise to treat FBI whistleblowers with the kind f contempt usually reserved for pedophiles, human traffickers and Klan members is a mystery. Then there is the grander question of why the news media is supporting the Democrats in this: after all, at issue is a corrupt and out-of control law enforcement agency.
Second, and most embarrassing of all, is the ineptitude of Rep. Sanchez and her staff, which obviously was ordered to do a deep dive into the social media accounts of the whistleblower witnesses in the Weaponization committee hearings to find dirt that could be used to discredit them. They found the wrong Twitter account, and yet Sanchez, adopting the accusatory approach and tone of Joe McCarthy, used a tweet from it anyway, demanding to know if the witness “agreed” with the mystery tweeter’s sentiment. Then Sanchez ended her self-humiliating questioning as if she had proven something other than the fact that she is an unapologetic fool.
What she should have said, when the witness told her she had the wrong account, was “I’m sorry,” then shut the hell up. I was immediately reminded of the memorable line delivered by Albert Finney (as attorney Ed Masry) at the end of “Erin Brockavich.” I wish the witness being abused by Sanchez had slightly rephrased it, and asked, “Do they teach members of Congress to apologize? Because you suck at it!”
Gee, What A Surprise: Pot Isn’t Good For Teenagers! Funny, I Figured That Out When I Was 16…
This post is going to be uncharacteristically short considering the seriousness of the issue, because I’m going to just get angrier and sadder the longer I think about it.
A new Columbia University study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), analyzed data from more than 68,000 teens surveyed by National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The researchers found that using marijuana while not being addicted to it was “significantly associated” with psychiatric disorders. Obviously teens addicted to pot had even worse outcomes, but those who use cannabis recreationally were two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with depression and to have suicidal thoughts than those who don’t use pot at all. The researchers also found a link between cannabis use and poor academic performance, skipping school and getting in trouble with the law.
This comes as approximately as much of a surprise to me as the revelation that tobacco caused lung cancer. I figured out when I was still in high school that a little-researched drug that you inhaled and that made you instantly inarticulate and stupid was doing something to your brain, and shouldn’y be used no matter how many “friends” and celebrities told you it was “cool” and that you were a weenie for not toking up. Fortunately, being the son of a lawyer and decorated veteran who believed laws should be obeyed, the fact that pot was illegal was enough for me, as it was for most people until the revolting Sixties. That was when the Left jumped the rails and started opposing laws generally (“Steal This Book” was an Abbie Hoffman hit. Abbie was also big pot fan. And he killed himself…)
The full force of popular culture was employed to sell the idea that pot was as harmless as bubble gum despite all evidence to the contrary. Then “medical marijuana” punched a hole in coherent enforcement; state governments, as they did with gambling, decided that they would rather make money than keep the public healthy, and now a big, ugly genie is out of the bottle for good. I totally failed in my efforts to fight this damaging cultural wave: a young man who is very dear to me began using weed in his teens, and had, and continues to have, all of the problems the Columbia researchers associated with pot use.
The arrogance, foolishness, lack of responsibility and defiance of common sense that created this societal malady—as if we didn’t have enough of them already—was unforgivable, and I’m not going to forgive it, ever. Screw you all, NORMAL, Cheech and Chong, John, Paul, George and Ringo, the Not Ready For Prime Time Players, Hollywood, Barack Obama, Timothy Leary, and all the other rich and privileged pot users who didn’t care what endorsing illegal drug use would do society, kids, and especially poor and minority communities.
This wasn’t hard to see coming, but you valued your little daily highs more. Well, I’m stuck living in the dumber, less healthy and more chaotic world you created. Congratulations.
Comment Of The Day: “Wait! Is THIS Peak Stupid In The Age Of The Great Stupid?”
Yesterday’s post about the theology PhD student telling a congregation that Jesus was transsexual based on artist renditions of him was calculated to trigger lively responses, and indeed it has. CD-VAPatriot is one of the Ethics Alarms readers who doesn’t comment often but is always sharp and provocative when she does, and this Comment of the Day is another example. (I have recently figured out that EA has a lot of female participants here. Good.)
Here is CD-VAPatriot‘s Comment of the Day on the post, “Wait! Is THIS Peak Stupid In The Age Of The Great Stupid?” …
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I’m often left speechless by Woke World, but this one takes the cake. I’m physically sickened by this claim.
I have no problem with the LGBTQ crowd, although when their group constantly holds their needs/wants/ideals over the importance of everyone and everything else, it becomes an issue. As for the trans community, I feel very sorry for those adults who believe they were born the wrong gender. I feel that this conviction comes from the mind of someone who is mentally ill. Mutilating healthy body parts, removing healthy organs, using heavy duty medications one’s body doesn’t actually need is considered Xenomelia (Body Integrity Dysphoria)…which is classified as a mental illness. I consider transgenders in this category. My heart breaks for someone in that much pain. I believe that someone suffering from such a serious illness should be treated with complete compassion.
Miller Lite Surpasses Bud Lite’s Self-Immolating Beer Ad With One That’s Even More Unethical
By now it should be clear what was wrong with the Bud Light promotion featuring silly biological male drag queen Dylan Mulvaney,. First of all, it was incompetent: alienating your core market to score political correctness points with groups that don’t care about your product is idiotic. It was also irresponsible: investors in the company don’t own stock to be part of political grandstanding, they want to make money, and a company has an obligation not to undermine that objective. It was disrespectful too: making one’s product into a symbol of one side of a culture wars skirmish forces consumers to take sides, and is a slap in the face to consumers who don’t happen to agree with the company’s stance.
None of this was difficult to figure out, but a smug female marketing VP decided to use her job to advance her own political beliefs rather than to do what she was hired to do: sell beer. This, of course, should have meant a bonanza for the competitors of Bud Lite; if Bud’s sales were going to implode (and they have, down about 25% with no relief in sight), light beer-lovers (weird as they may be) had to go somewhere. But even before the “Drink Bud Lite, show your support for self-identifying women with penises” campaign, Miller Lite had issued the smugly woke video above during Women’s History Month. It’s worse than the Bud Lite ad, even though it won’t lose as many loyal customers:
Ethics Alarms 