Orson Scott Card is a Hugo-award-winning science fiction author, having written Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead among other best-selling works. In the intro to this article from Meridian magazine, he is presented as being a Democrat, but it would be more accurate, I think, to portray him as an anti-idiotarian, the post-9/11 movement of liberal, conservative and libertarian anti-islamist webloggers. Card is an insanely great writer. You can find him at his best at his Hatrack River site. As always, I don’t have any great use for Republicans, but I think this is a fine excoriation of the suicidal negligence of the mainstream media.
These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was … the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was … the Republican Party.
Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!
What? It’s not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?
Now let’s follow the money … right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.
And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate’s campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.
If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.
But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama’s people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn’t listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.
You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.
If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.
If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.
[….]
If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.
Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That’s what you claim you do, when you accept people’s money to buy or subscribe to your paper.
But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.
If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.
Because that’s what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don’t like the probable consequences. That’s what honesty means. That’s how trust is earned.
Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time — and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.
Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter — while you ignored the story of John Edwards’ own adultery for many months.
So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?
Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?
[….]
It’s not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.
If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.
Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation’s prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama’s door.
You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.
This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.
If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe — and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.
If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.
You’re just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it’s time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
Teri L says:
Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite writers, and has been from the first book of his I ever read “Enchantment”. “Ender’s Game” has a prized place on my book shelf as well, that is when my son isn’t rereading it.
About the topic: There’s this thing called integrity- doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. I no longer read the paper. I no longer watch the news. Not only has the press worked for a particular cause and put their own self-interest first, more frightening, more horrific, more disturbing, they have effectively taken up against citizens in every way they can manage. From suppressing the truth to attacking Joe the Plumber (I AM Joe the Plumber!), I’m done watching the dog and pony show. I’ll think my own thoughts and I’ll raise my kids to do the same.
October 21, 2008 — 10:13 am
David Shafer says:
Well, talk about the pot calling the kettle black. This post is about as fact filled as his fiction writing. Is he dishonest or does he just not understand?
Readers of this blog should understand because of the great posts by Brian, Tom and others that Fannie and Freddie did not originate a single sub-prime or alt-a loan. Now they did buy some MBSs that had sub-prime and alt-a loans in them, but they bought only a small percentage of the sub-prime/alt-a loans out there originated by others. No doubt it was a mistake to buy those loans, and drove them into bankruptcy induced government bail-out, but if they didn’t buy a single MBS with sub-prime/alt a loan in them the crisis would have still happened the exact same way (albeit without the F & F bailout) because those loans were being originated regardless of F & F investments in the MBS market. So it isn’t true that the Democrats (or even the Republicans) caused the crisis or that the Republicans tried to prevent it.
Further, F & F starting buying sub prime/alt a based MBS in 1999, so the Rebublicans have 6 years to bring it up, get it out of committee and to a discussion/vote on the house and senate floor when they had the majority. And McCain only signed on to the bill a full year after it was introduced in his committee so he was hardly a lead bell ringer here, nor was it a priority with him at the time as there is not any public record of him talking about it on the senate floor!
Simply, this is political propaganda for McCain bereft of any logic or basic truth!
October 21, 2008 — 12:41 pm
Matt Carter says:
Mr. Card’s analysis is a little simplistic in that he equates the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with the much larger global financial crisis precipitated by the tremendous growth in the use of collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps, which helped subprime lenders package loans into “private label” mortgage-backed securities not guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie.
Dems may deserve some of the blame for the lack of regulation of these “instruments,” but the explosion in the use of CDOs and CDS took place on the Bush administration’s watch.
A more nuanced view from Wall Street Journal article that cites Andrew Davidson, “a mortgage industry consultant in New York who has done work for Fannie and Freddie and also criticized them for taking excessive risks.”
— “Fannie and Freddie do share some of the blame for the mortgage and housing bust … but weren’t the leaders in lowering credit standards.”
— The “worst-performing mortgages are those that were originated by subprime lenders and packaged into securities sold by Wall Street, rather than by Fannie and Freddie.”
— While “loans for low-income people — programs championed by Democrats as well as many Republicans — have contributed to Fannie and Freddie’s losses, they aren’t the biggest part of the problem.”
October 21, 2008 — 1:54 pm
Angela Allen Parker says:
As a US citizen who is deeply disappointed in the direction things are taking (and have been for some time, not just since the economy started flailing about), I like what Card says here.
Since I was a journalist for awhile, it alarms me when psudo-stories sell as truth in the media outlets. I’m alarmed and dismayed that the media has become so slanted and so self-serving in recent years.
I’m not a fan of Bush (and don’t even want to get started on how his role has stripped individual rights and how he used the media to those ends during the terrorist witch-hunts in recent memory).
With all that said, Obama scares the bee-geebies out of me, but not because of the things most people quote. He is an eloquent speaker (and I’ve always admired that particular skill) but what he says, the actual content of those glossy soliloquies are downright alarming.
I don’t want a parental government. I don’t want the people I hire to take care of the business of governing to decide that they are also omniscient and know (better than me) what is in my best interest.
A government should govern, not dictate. It should not be in the business of handouts and it should not save people from themselves — and their own stupid, or misguided, mistakes.
We, as individuals and as a collective, learn from our mistakes. We are a stubborn species and we can’t be told what to do — we have to learn by doing. We learn by failing and having to clean up our own messes.
The government shouldn’t be in the business of fixing our mistakes and saving us from the education we so richly deserve and that we have worked so hard to earn.
The economy is going to stumble. It may even fall. So be it. Putting it off and artificially propping it up will only delay the inevitable and make the fall harder (and longer) when it does come.
I’m not usually overtly political in public forums, but it pains me to see so many being fooled so completely by their own desire to believe in something that isn’t real.
Yes, it IS all going to be ok. No, it is not going to be easy to travel between where we are now and where we need to be. No, a political figure cannot be a hero and save us from ourselves. Yes, a political figure (with the backing of a similar congress) can bring about our ruin faster — but only if we allow it. Yes, your vote does matter (even if the media says it doesn’t).
Find a candidate that you can support that doesn’t just tell you what you want to hear, but tells you the truth. In the current climate, at least find the one that tells you a little MORE of the truth, since both current options seem to enjoy an adversarial relationship with truth at the moment.
October 21, 2008 — 2:17 pm
David Shafer says:
Angela, in my heart I agree with you (except for the Obama being scary part). Our politicians have not been telling us the truth for a very long time, maybe forever!
But when you have folks like Warren Buffett advocating for the bailout, it takes on a different tone in my mind.
I’m glad that the politicians at least recognize that letting the economy implode is not necessarily a great thing, instead we need to avoided it at all costs! 30% unemployment is not something I personally want to live through no matter what the market purist think!
October 21, 2008 — 5:39 pm
Dennis Blackmore says:
There are no truths among the “rats” in both parties. They are more concerned about someone opening doors for them, bring them their lunch, and others smothering them with you are wonderful comments.
Those who complain about lack of experience of any of the candidates (Obama/Palin) only need look at what the incumbents have done over the last 30 years – screwed up this country.
Billy the bloodhound has more sense than some of these politicians.
October 21, 2008 — 5:43 pm
Joe Hayden says:
All of it is pretty sad, huh Greg? Amazing the power of the media!
October 21, 2008 — 6:12 pm
Dave Barnes says:
Greg,
You just need to get over it and welcome our “new alien overloads” — the Obamaicans.
330+ on November 5th
,dave
October 21, 2008 — 7:04 pm
Michael Cook says:
Last time I checked the SEC and the Treasury was neither republican or democrat. Anyone blaming Congress or the president for this bailout is simply a crazy. There are too many other important government entities responsible for this crisis, not to mention CEOs, risk managers and other fail safes. This is propoganda at its worse, mascarading as facts.
Most of the Congress and certainly the president did even know whatCDOs or CMBS were (heck the president might not even be able to spell either). Rating agencies and the government financial oversight divisions are probably as far as government blame goes in my opinion.
October 21, 2008 — 8:24 pm
Greg Swann says:
> You just need to get over it and welcome our “new alien overloads” — the Obamaicans.
I have spent much of my adult life writing things that would cost me my liberty or even my life in most of the dismal spots on this planet human beings are condemned to inhabit. As much as I might loathe and lament what has become of the true Spirit of ’76, still, I have always been free, in my much-compromised America, to shoot my mouth off as I chose. Among my many fears of Barrack Obama and his cult of personality, the most immediate is that my own right to speak and to write may soon be subject to oversight, criminalization, penalization. Some very fine literature has been written from jail cells, but I would rather none of it were mine.
October 21, 2008 — 8:33 pm
Larry Brewer says:
I thought that the purpose of this post was to talk about the was our media isn’t reporting the truth. It doesn’t matter what we think about each political party, the media should report the facts, not the fiction we seem to be getting right now. The Associated press published an article yesterday the was a good example. The headline and story made it appear that the republicans paid a lobbyist to kill one of their own bills to regulate Fannie in 2005. After reading it again very carefully, it said that freddie paid a lobbyist to try to stop specific republicans from voting on the bill. 5 words were buried in the middle of a 2 page article.
The Democrats opposed the bill.
It was masterfully written, and had several of my democrat friends convinced that the republicans had paid to have their own bill defeated. I would not call that reporting the facts.
October 21, 2008 — 9:29 pm
Michael Wurzer says:
On what facts do you base this fear? I’ve voted Republican much of my life but the primary reason I will be voting for Obama this year is that the Republicans have shown complete disregard for our Constitution over the last eight years. Instead of defending our country with our Constitution, the Repulbican administration has ginned up fear that our Constitution is weak and needs spying and torture to protect it, which, of course, destroys it. If you fear losing your private liberty, I would suggest the policies implemented in the last eight years justify your fear far more than an Obama administration, which has spoken specifically to reigning in the spies and militarists most likely to take away your freedom.
October 22, 2008 — 5:40 am
Michael Wurzer says:
In addition, as others above have articulated well, this post itself provides no facts and tries to draw connections from Fannie/Freddie to the credit crisis that ignore the many other, arguably more fundamental, causes such as the failure of the credit swap system. I do agree that the “media” today is unhelpful. It seems to me that there would be a market for unbiased news, yet all we seem to get is Fox on the right, MSNBC on the left, an CNN providing some sort middle ground but certainly little that’s hard-core reporting. One would think that blogs and other new media may provide the answer, but, as this post makes clear, sorting fact from fiction is harder than it would at first appear. Little is as obvious as any partisan would have us believe and ascertaining the truth is hard work few seem willing to provide.
October 22, 2008 — 5:52 am
Doug Quance says:
Funny how the truth gets under some folks skin.
Fannie and Freddie; the Community Reinvestment Act; ACORN; and recalcitrant Democrats started this mess. They created the snowball that would eventually create the avalanche.
The whole concept of subprime lending started there… and because of expected high returns – the cancer grew with the greed on Wall Street.
There are many examples of Greenspan and the Republicans attempting to prevent this crisis – and Democrats fighting against further regulation of their millionaire retirement community known as Fannie.
The main street media is void of journalistic integrity.
And for the record, Raines’ scam at Fannie not only resulted in him making $90 million in six years… it also resulted in the largest punitive fine ever imposed against a US corporation – $400 million.
Where’s the perp walk? Enron was a joke compared to this.
And if you think that a Democratic congress is going to investigate this… you’ve got another thing coming.
October 22, 2008 — 11:10 am
Bob Logue says:
A forty year veteran of the broadcasting industry offering these thoughts. The major snake in the grass with the biased media is the Associated Press. A near monopoly on supplying national and international stories to thousands of newspapers, radio and TV stations all over the nation…most if not all of them rip and read or pull and publish whatever AP writes.
There is a tendency to overlook their bias and the fact that their bias ends up being the bias of all the newspapers, radio and TV stations who use the Associated Press written diatribe verbatim.
Please pass the word. Bob Logue
October 22, 2008 — 12:34 pm
Doug Quance says:
Truer words have not been spoken, Bob.
October 22, 2008 — 12:48 pm
Gregg Horn says:
With regard to David Shafer’s comments, would the questionable loans have occurred if the loaner’s didn’t think that F&F would be buying them up, subsequently? If not, then F&F’s policies were the reason for the loans…and Mr. Card’s write up is essentially factual on it’s broadest points.
Regardless, whatever “regulation” that comes out of Congress, post bailout, will be something on the order of capping the compensation of CEO’s, et al. It will be, therefore, meaningless to the taxpaying public and won’t in any substantial way address the real problem.
October 22, 2008 — 4:09 pm