Otterblog

We have published several stories in the past few days that look into questionable conduct by elected officials. They include our story of last week about Debra Conrad, a Forsyth County Commissioner; our stories about the foundation run by the members of the N.C. General Assembly’s black caucus, and a related piece yesterday. Some might even throw in our column from a week or so back about Rep. Larry Womble and his Ferrari.

What’s the common thread here? Is this “gotcha” journalism, or are there more substantial issues at play. First, let’s remove the Womble Ferrari from the discussion. I’m not sure it’s unethical to drive a nice Italian sportscar. May be un- something else, but that’s another debate for another day. Since the fall of Mike Decker/Jim Black, Meg Scott Phipps. etc., the ethical bright line in North Carolina has moved. Nobody said it moved. But it did. And perhaps what was business as usual a few years ago now feels kind of—well—icky.

The media’s role in this is complicated. Sometime we are accused—with a bit of justification—of being society’s nannies, of tsk-tsking disapprovinglyabout every little thing, and making transgressions seem more serious than they are. But my other feeling—which trumps the Nanny 911 deal—is that little problems are quite often indicators for larger problems. They are the warning signs. And as a newspaper, assuming that you are handling the material responsibly, there is a predisposition to publication when you are dealing with elected officials.

Good Summer Read: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, by Michael Chabon. This is a crazy, big book built on a big, crazy (and fictional) premise: that the Jews of the world are relocated to Sitka, Alaska and its environs after the collapse of the goal to build a Jewish homeland in Palestine in the late 1940s. To paraphrase the old Levy’s rye bread commercials, you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy it….