Camping joke here

Interesting paragraph in Inkless Wells, part of his comments on "being exposed" by Don Martin in the National Post for staying over at Scott Brison's compound:

In the meantime, there's an assumption underlying Don's column that I find remarkable indeed: that the biggest danger in political reporting is excessive sympathy for our subjects. I'd argue that a comparable danger is the cheap assumption that they're all liars and scoundrels, an assumption that's easier to strike because it insulates us from the crippling accusation of being "in the tank."

I like this, and not just because it's a bit contrarian. There is a tendency for the opposition and the media (can I use "us" here?) to focus on corruption. Often this lets mere incompetence go un-discussed, and plain old bad decision-making is rarely if ever addressed.

There is a connection here to Gomery, and the ways to spin its purpose, as well as to a rule of thumb I spelled out a couple of months ago. I'm going to work on this, but in short, I hope my new colleagues here resist not only the temptation to reflexively oppose everything the Liberals do, but also the temptation to focus on the crisis-du-jour. As Wells concludes:

..money is being hosed around this country for health care and equalization and regional development and research infrastructure in amounts dozens or hundreds of times greater than the party favours politicians hand out to their cronies. Ottawa remains more obsessed with politics than policy, which means the biggest crimes against good government go unreported. But everyone feels vaguely virtuous, which after all is the Canadian way.