“but they did it anyway”

In this editorial, the Herald-Sun rightly decries the lack of ethics by public officials, as demonstrated by a series of recent stories.

It rattles our belief in the honesty of public officials to realize that, in all of these cases, the people involved must have known what they were doing was wrong, but they did it anyway.

From the local police to the governor’s office, we must demand honest government. In most cases, we get it. But too many public servants have shown that, for them, ethics just isn’t a big concern.

For this reason, we must have a healthy skepticism of government and government officials. It used to be that journalists filled the role of Skeptic in Chief. These days, however, many journalists have abdicated their responsibility, opting instead to function as advocates for or against policy and politicians.

A great example of this lack of healthy media skepticism and the turn to advocacy is pointed out by the Business and Media Institute in this interview, which is based on this study.