Once again, the Raleigh News and Observer has latched on to a story designed simply to whip its readers into a frenzy. Some poor fool in county government took trips on the public’s dime. While I don’t necessarily approve of his actions, is this really something worthy of stopping the presses?
The guy says he had approval for his trips, and he apparently did. He traveled around doing whatever a recycling program manager does. Frankly, I don’t know what a recycling program manager does but the guy claims it was all for business purposes. His boss agreed, and did so for five years. Maybe its just me, but I’m not quite ready to draw and quarter him.
Last time I checked, its not a crime to travel for work (except sometimes its a crime for me to travel for work). Mike Easley took a trip to Italy that cost $170,000. Dear Leader George W. Bush just took a vacation in Europe with flimsy official purposes other than perhaps to travel one last time as King … er, President. I don’t even want to know how much that cost. In either case, nobody seemed to raise an eyebrow.
This is a tempest in a teapot next to the colossal issues facing us today. Perhaps the N&O readership has declined because its editors have become obsessed with these short-attention-span issues rather than bringing its readers the long view: the traditional advantage a paper has over its television rivals. It seems the N&O frequently plays to the foaming-at-the-mouth crowd. It could do so much better.
Hey N&O: you’re a newspaper, not a blog. Quit going after the mindless, low-hanging-fruit stories like these and bring us some real news.
Update: I don’t want it to sound like I’m condoning government waste – far from it. What I take issue with here is the self-congratulating tone the N&O frequently takes following these things. Yes, it was news that some schmuck was traveling to Disney World on our dime. Patting one’s self on the back with a story about the reaction – on the front page, no less – is a bit much.
I must disagree with you here Mark. For me this is a good example of reporting on wasteful spending, and this behavior deserves the attention the N&O gave it:
“…including purchases of top-of-the-line backpacking gear, a John Denver CD and a novel about elves…”
Yes, Guus. I do like to know when my tax dollars are being wasted. And they appear to be wasted here. I can’t think of any business purpose that Disney World may have served, except perhaps that its a plastic world and plastic needs to be recycled.
My issue is N&O’s story about the story. These kinds of things drive me nuts. Its the newspaper equivalent of talk radio.
While “Official Wastes Tax Dollars” is news, “Public Outraged By Wasted Tax Dollars” should be pretty damn obvious, shouldn’t it? 🙂