The Public's Right to Know
Whenever I hear this spoken, I think it's the sleazy celebrity paparazzi trying to sneak camera shots in. I don't think I'm alone. I think a lot of people think what I do when I hear that phrase "the public has a right to know."
But this time we should know. We should know just how deep the rot goes, we should know that the robber baron is the banker is the regulator is the Secretary of the Treasury. We should know that everyone that's an official and involved have been culpable in the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression.
A couple weeks ago Bill Moyers interviewed a man named William K. Black, who oversaw the committee looking into the Savings and Loans Crisis, he has told Moyers "the tool at the very center of mortgage collapse, creating triple-A rated bonds out of "liars' loans" — loans issued without verifying income, assets or employment — was a fraud, and the banks knew it.
And while there is no law against liars' loans, Black points out that there are, "many laws against fraud, and liars' loans are fraudulent. [...] They involve deceit, which is the essence of fraud."
Only the scale of the scandal is new. A single bank, IndyMac, lost more money than the entire Savings and Loan Crisis. The difference between now and then, explains Black, is a drastic reduction in regulation and oversight, "We now know what happens when you destroy regulation. You get the biggest financial calamity of anybody under the age of 80." "
Later in the episode he interviews two real maverick journalists. It is they who bring up just what is the media's role these days? Newspapers are collapsing, media conglomerates all but make sure that the news disseminated is the news they want spread.
As Amy Goodman says, "it's not just a violation of freedom of the press, Bill. It's a violation of the public's right to know. If they're just inside the convention, they get one message. The orchestrated message. And that's important to cover. You got to get into the corporate suites. Who's funding all of this? And you have to get into the streets. Democracy's a messy thing. And all of these voices must be heard."
Does the people's right to know have something to do with the relative lack of popular rage at beinged?
What is the public's right to know? Does that have effect on how we vote, how we view our politicians?
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Originally Posted by Future Filmmaker
