Do reporters routinely lie to their sources?

Do reporters routinely lie to sources and interview leads to get to the bottom of the story? Last weekend I saw the movie State of Play staring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck – it was a very good movie but that is not where I am heading.

Rachael McAdams plays a blogger turned reporter for the fictitious DC newspaper the Washington Globe. On several occasions she lies to people in order to get access to potential leads.My question is how common is this behavior in real life because it is quite common in the movies? The media is there to protect us against government, politicians and business that sometimes lie to the public. And every time a reporter lies because it is a convenient way to get deeper into a story they undermine their credibility when they want and need to be trusted.

Now granted in this story line you have some very nasty villains that are killing people. And just like when Jack Bauer lies to the bad guys on 24, if the circumstances are dire enough, lying to bad guys is the least of my concerns. But institutional lying on a routine basis is an easy habit to get into.

I have the same issue with the television depiction of the police routinely lying to witnesses and suspects. If they are going to lie to these people are they lying to you and me? I really do not know in real life if this is the way things are done but these lies can be quite entertaining when they are part of a good fictional story – I just don’t want the media or the police to actually use this method of operation anywhere near me. Let’s have a few stories about reporters and police using their imagination to get the story without lowering our ethical standards.

US Subsidies for Home Ownership

Why has America defined its wealth so much as a function of big beautiful homes? The Federal government has been subsidizing home ownership since 1913 when the modern Federal income tax system was reinstalled and included a deduction for home mortgage interest. That was the first federal subsidy for home ownership but far from the last. Since that time the US has added tax deductions for mortgage interest on your second home and the property taxes you pay on your first and second homes. And then if you make money on your home and live in it for at least two years you and your wife pay no taxes on the first $500,000 in profit on the home. And then of course the government subsidizes Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae with implied government guarantees and subsidies other home borrowing via vehicles like VA and FHA home mortgages.

How much more can the government do? Hopefully not much at all. A good deal of the run up in housing prices has been a function of all these subsidies. And this run up in prices led to the perception that you just can’t lose buying a home during the periods where these subsidies helped drive up the prices.

When the government starts subsidizing things you know you will get more of it than you would have had absent the subsidy. But what are the unintended consequences? The US government’s own finances are so tied to the ongoing viability of the US housing industry that it might be catastrophic if it suddenly ended this subsidy game. But for god’s sake please don’t add any more housing subsidies and please stop the subsidy business elsewhere because more subsidies will screw up those markets as well.

Do you want an honest police force?

A very funny but untrue (according to snopes.com) story points out the problems with a police force no one can trust. Who trusted Russia's KGB during the 1960's? Our television shows and movies consistently depict the police lying to trying to dupe the "bad guys". But do we really want the police that no one trusts because they consistently lie (or are pereived as lying) to the bad guys as well as witnesses when it saves them time or is convenient?


HOW TO CALL THE POLICE

George Phillips , an elderly man, from Meridian,Mississippi, was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened theback door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?" He said "No," but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me. Then the police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along whenone is available." George said, "Okay." He hung up the phone and counted to 30. Then he phoned the police again. "Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now because I just shot them." and he hung up.

Within five minutes, six Police Cars, a SWAT Team, a Helicopter, two Fire Trucks, a Paramedic, and an Ambulances howed up at the Phillips' residence, and caught theburglars red-handed. One of the Policemen said to George, "I thought you said that you'd shot them!" George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"