No, this isn’t the Honest Reporting known to spin news stories that have been spun against Israel. This is a story about people who are committed to being honest with their work, and being accountable for the way they perform their jobs.
In a truly amazing show of integrity, Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC refused to report on a story of Paris Hilton being released from jail on the grounds that it is not an important story. As her producer repeatedly pushed Hilton to be the lead story, Brzezinski tore up, almost burned, and shredded the lead paper. It’s a very courageous move for someone to take live on national television.
Another story that was nice to see was this one reported today in the New York Times. There are dozens of Foundations in the US that provide hundreds of millions of dollars for programs an initiatives meant to improve the quality of life both locally and around the world. Until recently, these groups would only publish their success stories; stories that highlighted the stellar allocation of large fortunes.
Now, it seems, these foundations are publishing lengthy reports outlining their failures. One such report noted that a $60 million program to improve after-school activities in five California cities. The foundations are explaining that others will be able to learn from their mistakes, and ultimately improve the rate of success across the board.
It’s nice to see this level of intellectual and professional honesty, and it’s a great guiding principle for life.
July 27, 2007 at 11:27 pm
the transparency of foundations is an extremely important issue,. Not only should they openly discuss the success-failure evaluations of the projects that they fund, but it is particularly important that they make their budgets publically available. In part because of our tax laws, private foundations are an increasingly common source of moneys that may be used at will in any part of the world as well as in the United States. Projects in medicine, education, development and perhaps more unsavory issues can be implemented as desired - if you control enough money. Our political process has increasingly taken measures to control the power of large corporations etc, but we have only begun to realize that so-called ‘private’ foundations should not go uncontrolled when they become important political actors. One of the most valuable tools to control fiscal power is the requirement to make public all the details of the money involved - who contributes it, who determines how it is spent , what projects it finances, and where they operate.
August 2, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I completely agree with the actions that Mika took on live national television. I only hope that I would have the same courage as her if I was put in that same situation. Time and time again it seems that America has their priorities mixed up, and unfortunately it takes a tragic incident, like the steam pipe incident in Times Square, Manhattan, or the Minnesota bridge collapse, to wake us up. There are special news shows that should cover stories like Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan and that’s “E” and “Access Hollywood”. Shows like MSNBC and the like are only given a fixed amount of time to broadcast to their viewers what is PRESSING current events, and I think we know what kind of stories fit that description. So in a nutshell, Mika, YOU GO GIRL!