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Too Many Cooked Up Crises and Scandals Spoil Our Public Policy

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

          Recent “news” reports suggest that the University of Louisville has intentionally overlooked improper expenditures by its former president, suggesting that there is something crooked and scandalous afoot.  But the “news” does not report any actual improper expenditures – just that there might be something improper that hasn’t been found yet.  Now there’s some real news!  Similarly, our local newspaper is accusing Kentucky’s new governor, Ernie Fletcher, of having a corrupt administration – before he has even taken office and had any opportunity to do anything corrupt.  Shouldn’t we at least give him his chance and see whether he uses the state treasury as his personal piggy bank before accusing him of corruption?  Why all the noise suggesting improprieties and scandals, when there are not sufficient facts to support those suggestions?  Is it the job of reporters to report facts or to inflame emotions?   

          It is understandable that reporters want to report scandals, because scandals sell.  But we should not allow them to get away with simply pretending that there are scandals – we should demand that they go out and dig up the real, scandalous facts. 

          There are plenty of true scandalous stories that could be told.  The reporters could tell us about the scandal of the thousands of children who are “falling through the cracks” in our Kentucky education system, which hungrily demands “world class” funding (to hire friends and buy votes throughout the state) while providing third rate results.  They could tell us about the scandal of the many roads that are not being built to serve the people of Kentucky because of corruption, government-protected restrictions on competition, and overspending in our transportation department.  They could tell about businesses that are closing and others that will never open, due to excessive taxation and regulation.  But they do not want to tell us these true stories.  Instead, they would rather ignore the facts and the truth and proceed to inflame people’s emotions in order to promote the public policies they want.

          Another recent headline denounces free-standing medical testing centers for failing to obtain a “certificate of need” from the state before investing in expensive test equipment.  The article gives us the state’s position, telling us that the “certificate of need” is essential in order to prevent these enterprises from buying more testing equipment than is really “needed” and passing the costs on to the consumers.  How dare those greedy entrepreneurs risk their own money on medical equipment without the state’s permission! 

          But the article fails to reach the real truth of the matter.  How are consumers harmed when entrepreneurs risk their own money in order to offer consumers a choice?  Why should bureaucrats prevent consumers from deciding for themselves how much they “need”?  Aren’t consumers better protected by competition than by red tape? You won’t see those issues even mentioned in the article. You won’t see any suggestion that the real scandal is for the government to have the audacity to prevent competition and to take these choices away from consumers in the name of “protecting” them. 

          Yes, there are plenty of scandals that could be reported.  Consumers, children, workers, and taxpayers are being mistreated and abused by the government’s policies every day.  But don’t expect to read about that in your local newspaper.  

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