How Do You Shame the Shameless?
Journalists for sale

While much of the blog world is discussing Howard Kurtz's discussion of meetings between the White House and editors about "sensitive" material, I found the second part of his WP column, Bush Presses Editors on Security , also important. In this segment he talks about journalists who accepted payment to write op-ed articles for lobbyists. What I liked best was the quote by law professor Glenn Reynolds, who turned down a fat paycheck to write an article for a telecommunications company. Discussing the self-justifications of some journalists for hire, he notes:

"[O]ne argument is, it's probably something he thought anyway, but it doesn't pass the smell test to me. I wouldn't necessarily call it criminal, but it seems wrong. People want to craft a rule, but what you really need is a sense of shame."

I have also wondered about the general lack of shame among many politicians, televangelists, and talk show personalities who loudly profess their Christianity. Quite a few are very quick to hurl indictments at those they consider to be sinners, without remembering that the only people Jesus is on record for condemning were religionists who condemned others. The rampant, glorified greed of much of the right also astounds me. Do they not remember Jesus urging rich people not to hoard wealth, in fact to sell all they had and follow him? How in the world can anyone turn him into an apologist for greed and intolerance? Have they no shame?