Playing Fair

I just returned from an AYSO soccer referee meeting. One of AYSO's mottos is that the game should be "Safe, Fun, and Fair." All three balance out. We could keep kids safe by dressing them up in layers of hockey goalie equipment, but would that be "fun"?

I was thinking about this with the Sandy Berger affair that has come up in the last few days. Here is one article from the Washington Post. One quote stuck out to me.

"This is a terrible experience for him, and he's embarrassed by his mistakes," Lockhart said, "but I think he also feels a sense of injustice that after building a reputation as a tireless defender of his country that many Republicans would try to assassinate his character to pursue their own ends."

This statement does not seem "fair" to me, so I am blowing my soccer Fox 40 whistle and calling a foul. It just might be that Republicans are more interested in national security, and the security of pilfered classified documents, than character assasination.

Of course, as Hugh Hewitt has stated, what if Condi Rice had done the very same thing. Would the press, (NYTimes, LATimes, Washington Post) be defending her character? Or would they be charging moral corruption in the Bush administration?

I do not want to be partisan here, just looking out for what is "fair." If someone does something illegal, they should face the consequences. Especially if what they have done is proved, and not merely suggested. At this point, we do not know what happened to the missing documents, nor what Berger did with them nor why he did it. Was it to protect the Clinton administration from charges that they screwed up in national security affairs? Was it a lapse on his part? We do not know, and it behooves bloggers and journalists to not turn speculation into gospel truth.

What I long for is a truly fair and balanced reporting in the media. Hey, if your person screws up, it is fair game to criticize them. If your opponent does something well and noble, what is the harm in commending them? The current state of reporting, taking things out of context, innuendo, guilt by association, is the work of partisan hacks rather than journalists.

So let's play fair, boys and girls. If we do not play fair, it is neither safe nor fun.

End of rant. Amen.