I’m in your corner. While the press has to bring home the bacon, it is nevertheless a higher calling, akin to a religious calling. We need more skepticism and more passion (the fire in the belly). And even then those of us who are not in the media have to take responsibility for choosing among the cacophony of competing journalistic voices and, if necessary, launch our own investigations. Thank God for the internet–yes, no, maybe?

I think we’re on the same page for the most part (and yes, we’re definitely off-topic). I absolutely believe that corruption in any form needs to investigated and publicized and I’m frustrated that the media is largely failing in this area because the companies that own the news organizations don’t see enough profit in funding investigations.

Regarding corporations, I think it’s a bad move for blame to constantly and blindly be assigned to them (or any entity) for society’s ills. This has the effect of diverting attention from the real issues but it also has the effect of numbing people to the point that when real corruption is exposed it barely makes a ripple in people’s minds.

And yes, I am part of the media and that’s why I am so frustrated by what I perceive to be major shortcomings of this industry. The media has a responsibility to the public to be honest and truthful, to ask the tough questions and not be content with canned responses, and to be wise enough to be fulled by illogical arguments and straw men.

What you are doing is great. You’re giving perspective to real issues and that makes people do something a lot fail to do: think about real issues. Keep up the good work!

The vast majority of corporations in America are small businesses. Does anyone honestly think these businesses are greedy monsters that lying, cheating, and stealing?

Anyone who owns even a single share of stock in a corporation is a partial owner of that corporation. If corporations are evil, then so is everyone with a 401(k) or an investment. After all, corporations exist to bring profit to their stockholders. To attack corporations is to attack every individual invested in or employed by a corporation. Actually, anyone who purchases a product from a corporation is also guilty of enabling them.

Corporations employ people who in turn pay income taxes. Gutting corporations means cutting jobs which drops income taxes and puts more people on the unemployment line. I’m not sure how that helps the economy at all.

Yes, corporations get tax breaks. And guess what? Anyone who wants to start a corporation can file the necessary paperwork and start reaping the benefits. It’s called entrepreneurship and these breaks are rewards for chasing the American dream of being self-employed, employing others, and producing a good or service that adds to the economy.

That’s not to say that corporations should be allowed to cheat tax laws, but it is to say that we need to stop looking at corporations as the source of evil in the world and start asking why a government that already collects trillions of dollars in taxes from already over-taxed citizens still cannot pay its bills or act responsibly. Blaming corporations is just shifting the focus from incompetent and greedy government to a scapegoat.