What the Fourth Estate is really about
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 By Mike MaurerRandy Ludlow is an old-school, on the ground reporter who has made public records and sunshine his special mission for the past few years.
He’s got his teeth into something serious with government officials abusing their power, looking up people they find suspicious without any justified grounds for it. This is the kind of stuff that causes the Manhattan media to call for impeachment if a Republican is involved, but it’s ho-hum if it’s Democrats. The latest justification is that anyone who makes the news is a target of special, home-cooked inquiry. That’s appalling and frightening. And how much do you want to bet that 90 percent to 100 percent of those who get special inquiry are not Democrats, or that the inquiry stops a good deal earlier if they are?
In a balanced world, this would be the kind of reporting that gets included in the Pulitzer nominations. But in the world we have, it won’t be. More important that we express shock and awe for a year or so about gold coins . . . say, what is the price of gold coins these days?
