Opinion: In today’s pages: Props 2 and 4, the Wall Street bailout, the debate bailout
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
There’s so much good stuff coming from the Opinion Manufacturing Division today, I’m actually going to resist the temptation to start with O.J. again. The election dominates the pages, starting with the editorial board’s call for voters to reject Prop. 4 -- the latest attempt to require minors to notify a parent before having an abortion -- and Prop. 2 -- a measure to regulate the treatment of chickens, pigs and calves in the food supply. The board argues that Prop. 4’s coercive provisions could lead to more illegal abortions, not fewer, and more attempts to conceal pregnancies in ways that harm fetuses:
In fact, under the guise of protecting underage girls, this proposal really is just the latest attempt to impose any obstacle in the exercise of reproductive freedom. This represents the third try in recent years to pass such a measure. California should reject it again.
Similarly, the board says Prop. 2 has a noble goal, but its likely impact is the opposite of its aim:
As much as we support the decent treatment of animals, we doubt that passage of the measure would start a national trend. In fact, we fear that it would have an unintended consequence: Because it only regulates eggs produced in California and not eggs that are sold here, it would likely bolster the market for cheaper out-of-state eggs produced where farmers have no similar bans on cages.
Rounding out the stack, the board urges John McCain to stay on the campaign trail and debate Barack Obama tomorrow night as scheduled, rather than cloistering himself in Washington to work on the crisis in the financial industry. And speaking of the debate...
... the Op-Ed page offers four (count ‘em, 4) proposals for making such events more worthwhile for voters. Bill O’Reilly, Dan Rather and Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (how quixotic!) offer crunchy bite-sized ideas, while journalist Jesse Kornbluth expounds at length on how to make the debates more compelling for viewers.
Meanwhile, back on the John McCain beat(down), columnist Rosa Brooks revives the Arizona senator’s efforts two decades ago on behalf of contributor Charles Keating, head of a boom-and-bust savings and loan association in McCain’s state. The failure of Keating’s Lincoln Savings & Loan in 1989 was one element of an industry-wide collapse that led to a $125 billion taxpayer bailout. Says Brooks:
The $125 billion seems like small change compared to the $700-billion price tag for the Bush administration’s proposed Wall Street bailout. But the root causes of both crises are the same: a lethal mix of deregulation and greed.
And last but certainly not least, columnist Patt Morrison observes with satisfaction how disinterested the public seems in O.J. Simpson’s latest trial, despite the extensive coverage in the press:
Now, in the midst of a financial meltdown, we don’t have time to read about O.J.; we’re too busy refreshing our 401(k) investment page every five minutes.
Thank heaven for small favors!
The nifty ‘liar!’ and ‘fact!’ graphics that accompanied Jesse Kornbluth’s Op-Ed are by the Times’ Wes Bausmith.