. . . for good journalism!
TODAY'S FRONTPAGER, "White backs off 'credit enhancement' with tax dollars," is a big win for taxpayers, common sense, good government, and Chronicle reporter Carolyn Feibel.
Her Monday Tuesday story about a goofy proposed city giveaway program prompted a righteous public blowback, the likes of which we have not seen for a long time.
Read the story to see whose fingerprints were on the orphaned plan to transfer money from a politically disfavored constituency (taxpayers) to a politically favored constituency (122 residents of specific politicians' districts).
It was good fun all around. The editorial page's triumphal piling-on was even charming, though I wish Ms. Feibel had gotten an attagirl for her work.
The story also reminds us what we will lose if the financial decline of newspapers deprives us of talented fulltime reporters at city hall and other places where elected officials and unelected bureaucrats do so many foolish things.
Also, the credit-card payment plan is exactly the sort that a standard-issue liberal reporter might well have overlooked. For the greater good, you know.
Ms. Feibel turned a bright light on the program, however, and the politicians scurried away like cockroaches caught feeding on a stale donut.
Oh, for more of this from our journalists! More, more, more! This kind of reporting changes the world, and for the better.
Government spending is a target-rich environment, but too many reporters accept the premises of the spenders and ignore the interests of taxpayers.
For good blog reaction to the whole mess, go to Lose an Eye.
UPDATE: Thanks to the link from blogHouston, which also has a good discussion ("Have we simply gone mad?") and links to other bloggers who weighed in.
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