Dennis Lund (Benicia Herald Forum, 10-17-10) is so slick he can use honest reporting of an interview with Rep. George Miller to work covert purpose. He makes himself look fair while knowing full well his Republican readers will view Miller’s statements through screens of reactionary bias that convert them to the cynical stuff they expect and want from Democrats. When Miller points the primary importance for the 112th Congress of promoting job creation, smiling Dennis knows his Rightist readers instantly say, Government can’t make new jobs, only the private sector can do that. Miller says we have to invest in clean energy, efficiency, health technology and factories here not overseas. Lund’s readers hear he wants to throw public money where private initiative should prevail. In “Notes From 30,000 Feet,” Dennis just smiles down.
Across the page, Jerome Page’s feet are on firm ground, reporting sincerely in a piece titled “Buying Our Democracy.” He tells of the Supreme Court’s avid seizing upon the Citizens United case as means to commit unprecedented, legal activism in overturning democracy with money. He quotes key responses on the bad effects of that decision and highlights Republican blockage of the proposed DISCLOSE Act in Congress. He mentions the huge amounts of money from hidden sources channeling into ads against Democratic candidates in what Ryan J. Reilly of TPM calls “the least regulated election in recent history.” Could that be more quietly put? Page reserves any hint of personal opinion to the very end, with: “Don’t you–and I–have a right to know who is buying our Democracy?” Let us hope in truth all things work out for the good. Alas, I recall Hitler’s putsch and fear the “working out” can be long, tortuous — and bloody.
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