Ethics Columnists Round Up 6/14/2010

Mitchell Schnurman writing for the Fort Worth Star Telegram discusses Radio Shack continued push for more incentives to stay in the Fort Worth area. Schnurman is upset about the whole matter and after you read the article I bet you get upset too. It’s a good two pages and most of it is spent discusses the great deals Radio Shack is already getting. This guy is fighting the good fight. I wish there were more people like him. Give ’em hell, Mitchell!

Loren Steffy has a picture of a crab sporting a new camo paint job courtesy of its friends at British Petroleum.

Steffy’s June 10th essay asks that interesting question, “Do the Chinese want to organize a takeover of BP?”

Jon Talton talks about the poorly performing stock market and asks his readers to vote on what they expect it to do. (It’s going down.)

Jay Hancock asks, “Why is anyone surprised that Moody’s downgraded Greek debt to junk status?” He’s right. The most casual reading of the newspaper would tell someone the country was in trouble. A tiny, little reading of the material disclosed Goldman Sachs’ involvement in the debt crisis. Haven’t you seen enough of Goldman Sachs to realize that all their clients are expected to be “sophisticated investors?” Doesn’t always work out, does it?

Edward Lotterman says what I have already known for a long time: the internet can be a reliable source of information. He recommends using official government reports and cross checking them with other government agencies. I consider it to be a matter of experience and judgment tempered by a willingness to keep on hunting until you are sure you have the answer, and if you can’t find a definitive answer, the willingness to explain where you found the data and that it may not be accurate. (I firmly believe that humility is seriously lacking in this culture.)

Newspaper Columnists I Follow

FThese are my current choices among newspaper columnists. There are going to be a lot of changes over time. It’s taking me a lot of reading to find authors who delve into ethics (which I believe includes reporting and explaining evil doing with a requisite level of outrage). Some that at first appear to be promising turn out to be less than level headed if read for a length of time. Each columnist, once discovered, is favorited to an intermediate category and only moved to my regular reading after a period of probation. I was writing one of my regular recommended authors when I pointed out that I seldom criticize and my writing tends to be very complimentary. So, I wanted him to know that I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings (there is little people are more sensitive about than their writing) and bad writing carries its own reward. If I find writing offensive, incompetent or crankish, it gets deleted from my favorites never to be seen again. I think that counts as criticism.

MY CHOICES
Mitchell Schnurman of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Loren Steffy of the Houston Chronicle (He has a Blog and a column.)
Jon Talton of the Seattle Times. His column is called, Sound Economy.
Keith Chrostowski of the Kansas City Star.
Jay Hancock of the Baltimore Sun. (He combines the occasional item related to ethics with consumer advocacy on consumer and sometimes very local issues, so he will only appear when I believe he is on point.)
Edward Lotterman writes for Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
David Moon writes for the Knoxville News.