Recent Accountability Commentaries

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It’s Time
It’s time for Alex Rodriguez to go. After too many chances and too many lies, it’s time for baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to step up, take a stand for integrity and impose a lifetime suspension on the Yankee star third baseman. “Who does it hurt?” I asked in 2009 (Deconstructing the Champ). “That’s the question that needs to be answered...
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August 1, 2013
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Subtext
In his closing argument in the George Zimmerman murder trial, Florida state prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda told a jury of six women that Trayvon Martin  “is dead because another man made assumptions, because his assumptions were wrong.” That statement pretty much sums up the entire Martin/Zimmerman incident. From the outset, as soon as the shooting death of the 17-year-old,...
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July 12, 2013
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IRS: What Were They Thinking?
Just when you think things couldn’t get any stranger… they do! Yesterday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform heard testimony from Faris Fink, commissioner of the tax-collection agency’s small business and self-employed division. Fink was not there to testify about the wrongful targeting of conservative groups applying for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status. Mr. Fink was there to explain about a...
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June 7, 2013
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IRS: Scandal or Reality Show?
It’s become routine for Republicans in Washington to: a) discover an impropriety; then, b) examine if the president has any connection to it. Since his re-election, President Obama continues to deal with the fallout from three controversies: the deaths of four Americans at Benghazi, the questionable AP phone taps by the Department of Justice and the IRS scandal. Back in...
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June 6, 2013
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The IRS Scandal
Last month’s revelation that the Internal Revenue Service wrongly targeted conservative groups who applied for tax exempt status under Section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. Tax code has done much to play into the conventional wisdom that the IRS does, indeed, target individuals and groups based on politics. Let me start by explaining to those readers who may be first-time visitors...
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June 5, 2013
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Ryan to Bachmann to Paul
With baseball season underway, it’s time once again, to consult with the fact checkers to see who stretches the truth and who knocks it out of the park. While the White House certainly has enough of its own questions to answer between Benghazi, the IRS and the AP phone records issue, some members of Congress like to pile onin spite...
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May 22, 2013
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Coin of the Realm
It’s been ten years since New York Times reporter Jayson Blair was caught having “lied and faked and cheated his way through story after story — scores of them, for years,” The Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan writes (May 4). It was the first, and hopefully, last time I ever saw a newspaper list story after story by Blair for four, full...
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May 8, 2013
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Changing the Culture
Another story under the media radar, but represents a continuing effort by some lawmakers to improve conditions in Washington in spite of obstacles. On January 23, Republican Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and David Vitter of Louisiana re-introduced legislation calling for term limits on members of Congress. “Congress should not be a body of career politicians who have forgotten why they...
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February 8, 2013
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Good for Goodell
“Because of the principle that a calm sea and a prosperous voyage do not make news but a shipwreck does, most circulated news is bad news.” This piece of observational wisdom comes from writer, producer, director Norman Corwin in a story he shared in my book, What Do You Stand For? Owing to that insight, I found this story buried in...
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February 6, 2013
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Scandal Porn
The intersection of two stories this week caused me to examine the media’s appetite to pander under the guise of “coming clean.” After weeks of rumor and speculation, former seven-time Tour de France winning cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs to achieve his victories. In listening to Armstrong’s confessional, I wasn’t so much interested in...
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January 19, 2013