Is The Watchdog Asleep Again?
The following extract is from an article about lessons to be learned from the Cunningham case in today's North County Times (Jan. 1, 2006):
The media
It was a Copley News Service report in June that started the unraveling of Randy Cunningham's web of deceit.
Marcus Stern, in the news service's Washington office, detailed how Mitchell Wade, founder of the defense firm MZM Inc., paid $700,000 more for Cunningham's Del Mar Heights home that (sic) he would sell it for less than a year later. That purchase provided the cash for Cunningham to buy the gated mansion in exclusive Rancho Santa Fe.
Until then, rarely was there a negative word about Cunningham, who had won regular endorsement for re-election from this newspaper.
At the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism think tank and center for continuing education, vice president and senior scholar Dr. Roy Peter Clark suggested that until Stern's report, the media may have lost sight of its role as a government watchdog.
Newsroom budget cuts over the years that have reporters covering multiple beats and lack of money to fund bureaus in Washington are one part of the problem, Clark said.
"Communities should hold their news organizations accountable," he said last week. "Not necessarily for some sort of ideological bias, but in terms of performance and level of public service."
But the greater failing may have been in forgetting the watchdog role.
"Every news organization has to walk the line between skepticism and cynicism, and it appears there may not have been enough skepticism directed at this individual ---- anyone who looks at politics through rose-colored glasses is just a fool."
The adage "follow the money" wasn't done until Stern's report, something Roberta Baskin at the Center for Public Integrity said may have been the media's biggest sin.
"It's always about following the money," said Baskin, executive director of the nonprofit and nonpartisan center in Washington, which conducts investigative research and reports on public policy issues.
"You always need to look beyond what people say and what they do to see where the money is coming from and where it's going," she said.
Stern's story did just that. Until then, no media outlet in San Diego or in Washington had really taken a hard look at Cunningham and where he was getting his money and where it was being spent.
North County Times editor Kent Davy said that when Cunningham was running for re-election in 2004, the newspaper failed to look below the surface.
"If we had been much more aggressive about trying to understand his finances and his lifestyle, we might have stumbled onto the key to the story," Davy said. "The recommendations about following the money are dead-on, and that implies that we need to be doing routine record checks of people in the news so that things like the house transaction don't surprise us."
While not first with the initial story about the home sale, Davy said the newspaper "responded in a very credible manner which has significantly pushed the story along."
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/01/
news/top_stories/123105192840.txt
Has the North County Times really learned anything about its role as a government watchdog? This check was uncovered last month in response to a public records request made to the Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH) district:
By contributing $375,000, the PPH Foundation was the largest campaign contributor to the "Citizens for Better Health Care - Yes on BB" campaign committee. However, the PPH Foundation has yet to complete a Major Donor report (Form 461) as required of a contributor of over $10,000 to the campaign, or a Recipient Committee report (Form 460) for detailing the source of any campaign contributions as required when that source is $100 or more for a person or organization that receives contributions that total $1,000 or more. More details are available at:
http://civics.robroy.cc/fp.html
Also, see the blog entry below titled "Somber Issues in Escondido", dated December 7, 2005.
Until the disclosure forms (required under California's Political Reform Act) are completed, the public cannot see where the money is coming from and going to in the PPH hospital expansion matter.
Perhaps the North County Times is again waiting for the Copley News Service to take the lead in investigating this matter.
The media
It was a Copley News Service report in June that started the unraveling of Randy Cunningham's web of deceit.
Marcus Stern, in the news service's Washington office, detailed how Mitchell Wade, founder of the defense firm MZM Inc., paid $700,000 more for Cunningham's Del Mar Heights home that (sic) he would sell it for less than a year later. That purchase provided the cash for Cunningham to buy the gated mansion in exclusive Rancho Santa Fe.
Until then, rarely was there a negative word about Cunningham, who had won regular endorsement for re-election from this newspaper.
At the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism think tank and center for continuing education, vice president and senior scholar Dr. Roy Peter Clark suggested that until Stern's report, the media may have lost sight of its role as a government watchdog.
Newsroom budget cuts over the years that have reporters covering multiple beats and lack of money to fund bureaus in Washington are one part of the problem, Clark said.
"Communities should hold their news organizations accountable," he said last week. "Not necessarily for some sort of ideological bias, but in terms of performance and level of public service."
But the greater failing may have been in forgetting the watchdog role.
"Every news organization has to walk the line between skepticism and cynicism, and it appears there may not have been enough skepticism directed at this individual ---- anyone who looks at politics through rose-colored glasses is just a fool."
The adage "follow the money" wasn't done until Stern's report, something Roberta Baskin at the Center for Public Integrity said may have been the media's biggest sin.
"It's always about following the money," said Baskin, executive director of the nonprofit and nonpartisan center in Washington, which conducts investigative research and reports on public policy issues.
"You always need to look beyond what people say and what they do to see where the money is coming from and where it's going," she said.
Stern's story did just that. Until then, no media outlet in San Diego or in Washington had really taken a hard look at Cunningham and where he was getting his money and where it was being spent.
North County Times editor Kent Davy said that when Cunningham was running for re-election in 2004, the newspaper failed to look below the surface.
"If we had been much more aggressive about trying to understand his finances and his lifestyle, we might have stumbled onto the key to the story," Davy said. "The recommendations about following the money are dead-on, and that implies that we need to be doing routine record checks of people in the news so that things like the house transaction don't surprise us."
While not first with the initial story about the home sale, Davy said the newspaper "responded in a very credible manner which has significantly pushed the story along."
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/01/
news/top_stories/123105192840.txt
Has the North County Times really learned anything about its role as a government watchdog? This check was uncovered last month in response to a public records request made to the Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH) district:
By contributing $375,000, the PPH Foundation was the largest campaign contributor to the "Citizens for Better Health Care - Yes on BB" campaign committee. However, the PPH Foundation has yet to complete a Major Donor report (Form 461) as required of a contributor of over $10,000 to the campaign, or a Recipient Committee report (Form 460) for detailing the source of any campaign contributions as required when that source is $100 or more for a person or organization that receives contributions that total $1,000 or more. More details are available at:
http://civics.robroy.cc/fp.html
Also, see the blog entry below titled "Somber Issues in Escondido", dated December 7, 2005.
Until the disclosure forms (required under California's Political Reform Act) are completed, the public cannot see where the money is coming from and going to in the PPH hospital expansion matter.
Perhaps the North County Times is again waiting for the Copley News Service to take the lead in investigating this matter.
posted by Robroy at 1:29 PM
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