Where's the Truth? Big J to the Rescue

It all started as I was grinding my teeth yesterday, listening to RWR (right wing radio). Senator James Inhofe was a guest on the Sean Hannity program. Inhofe is the "flat earth" senator from Oklahoma. He was saying environmentally-oriented people worried about global warming "want us to give up our cars, stop building new homes and buildings, sacrifice our way of life for this hoax they call global warming." Etc.

So I was thinking, what's an uninformed person to think? Probably "Is this true? Damn those lefty tree huggers."

I mean he IS a U.S. Senator. Would he lie? Well you betcha, but unless you know his history, how would you know?

Can you believe, for instance, when a critic of the Iraq war says there has been huge fraud and theft by war profiteers? Maybe they are all liars, righties and lefties, saying whatever it takes to make their points.

I still believe that solid Journalism is the antidote to this kind of debilitating cynicism. The Wall Street Journal (my favorite newspaper) practices some fine "Big J" Journalism. They check their sources against other sources. They double check their facts - to make sure they are actually facts. When their information is qualified, they tell you.

So here is an excerpt from one of their columnist in this morning's on-line edition.

[Excerpt from Jan 31, 2007 "Morning Brief" by Joseph Shuman]

Trouble on other procurement fronts has been emerging as well. The Pentagon's Inspector General expressed concern the military isn't adequately equipping soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that many soldiers have gone without enough guns, ammunition and other supplies necessary to their missions, BusinessWeek reports. Soldiers have also found themselves short on body armor, armored vehicles and communications equipment. Separately, the special inspector general for Iraq said the U.S. "has squandered millions of dollars intended for police training programs in Iraq because of rampant problems overseeing contractors," the Washington Post reports. And with hearings on the war and contract oversight now on Congress's agenda, Iraqi war contractors are among the big corporations scrambling to hire lobbyists with Democratic ties, Bloomberg reports. Among them is Halliburton, which has signed up Patton Boggs. As Patton Boggs partner Nick Allard says: "No general counsel or CEO wants to have to explain to his board why the company's name is appearing on the front page of a news article in a scandal."

Every point is verified by an authoritative link to the primary source. Wow! Believable news. Try to find anything believable about environmentalists wanting to “stop us from building homes,” or “take away our cars.”

And have you noticed the new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? If this is a hoax, Senator Inhofe, it’s a doozy.