The Big Indifference
Call me a little naive, but I found it hard to believe some conservatives had the balls this week to gloat over accountability in Rathergate. After all, the scandal in question had to do with documents that were never proven, by any sufficient evidence I’m aware of, to be false. They were just never authenticated and probably never will be. Am I right? If so, I don’t think that’s merely the distinction of an ideological apologist (and I find that amusing given my attitude towards mainstream news, but whatever).
Armstrong Williams, on the other hand, got caught with his pants down taking money from the Bush Administration to peddle their No Child Left Behind Act. That’s not just crossing a journalistic ethical boundary, that’s a government bribe from the highest office in the land. That’s your money and mine pay rolling ideology and it’s a real, honest to goodness fraud. Period. There should be so much outrage from this, I don’t even know where to begin.
Now, Rathergate did turn out to have consequences. There’s a 224 page report from an investigation which I’m sure is a real page turner. Executives that were with CBS for years ended up losing their jobs and Dan Rather announced that he’s stepping down from the anchor desk. There has no doubt been some real, gut wrenching anguish over the report. In short, there has been accountability.
But we’ll see if the same rule is applied in the Williams case, and I’m not talking about the consequences for just him. Given the Bush Administration’s record of accountability in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, their mishandling of the war, and their inability to find any justification for a war in which thousands of innocent lives have been lost, I’m not holding my breath to see their version of accountability any time soon.
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