Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/49351
4A Daily News – Monday, December 5, 2011 Opinion Serving greed over human need D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 While the nation's largest banks were publicly reassuring nervous investors of their stability during the height of the financial crisis, they were also quietly approach- ing the Federal Reserve, hat in hand. The total price tag: $7.77 trillion, many times the amount of the better-known TARP bailout. The magnitude of the govern- ment's assistance to struggling banks allowed them to grow even bigger and continue paying execu- tives billions in compensation. They also quietly racked-up over $13 billion in profits from those bailouts with the so called "big six" — JPMorgan, Bank of Amer- ica, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Gold- man Sachs and Morgan Stanley — accounting for $4.8 billion of that total — nearly a quarter of their net income during that time. The six biggest banks in the country received a total $160 bil- lion in TARP funds, but as much as $460 billion from the Fed, rais- ing the question as to how and why this nearly $8 trillion in loans, guarantees and limits remained under wraps for so long. Accord- ing to the Fed, the massive scale of banks' borrowing — and the red ink that prompted it — had to be kept secret to avoid spooking investors and prompting a panic or bank runs that would have had even more devastating conse- quences on the shaken economy. The Fed defended its actions back then by contending that the biggest financial institutions in the country were too big to fail — a phrase that has become a bone of contention among lawmakers, some of whom argue that a "too big to fail" bank is one that's too big to exist. Meanwhile the number of fore- closure and "short" sales appear- ing in the Red Bluff Daily News and other local papers is burgeon- ing as the folks who were intended to benefit from these enormous next to zero interest rate federal loans continue to suffer. It is no wonder that people are taking to the streets and expressing their anger at a government that panders to the desires of Wall Street mega- banks as they feather campaign war-chests with record contribu- tions. Even our Supreme Court is complicit by recently granting cor- porations personhood when it comes to unfettered campaign contributions and consequential political influence. All the financial mumbo- jumbo of unregulated derivatives, credit default swaps, ponzi- schemes, and adjustable and default credit rates allow financial institutions to transfer the risks of failure while insuring themselves against any loss. After duping investors into the purchase of poi- soned portfolios and betting against their performance at least one state Attorney General is suing five of the big six banks for fraud and compensation. In anoth- er case a federal judge refused to accept a settlement between Chase Bank and the SEC for a quarter billion in dam- ages because the sum may not be sufficient and so the bank couldn't automatically escape admission of wrongdo- ing. Only time will tell if justice will prevail. Last week the stock market surged over three and one half per- cent in a single day (over a 1000 percent annual- ized rate) when the Fed told European banks that funds will flow as necessary to ensure their liquidity and entire nations can avoid the consequences of bor- rowing and spending more than they can justify. While this is no cause for celebration or profit you wouldn't know it on Wall Street, as financial titans continue to reap rewards from the deferred suffer- ing of common people. The sad thing is that most folks neither understand nor wield any control over these market manipulations as their governments blithely bor- row and banks profit at their expense to offer a false sense of security. The longer we allow banks unfettered access to funds and Richard Mazzucchi Positive Point bail-outs without requiring they offer real relief to borrowers the further we sink into the financial abyss of oligarchy, where a few kingpins at the top control the levers of commerce, finance and government for their self-aggran- dizement. The disorga- nized demonstrations of Occupy Wall Street pro- testers and the self absorbed sit-ins of stu- dents over skyrocketing tuition are important measures to help bring fundamental change to our fiscal policies and a necessary realignment of national priorities. Should we fail to heed these clarion calls as malfeasance climbs to biblical proportion, I beseech those that believe ours is a Christian nation to pray for the return of Jesus this holiday season so as to finish the work of overturning carts of temple moneychangers by redress- ing those that possess ill-gotten gains and their sycophants for serv- ing greed over human need. Richard Mazzucchi is a retired research engineer specializing in energy efficiency and renewable energy. He makes his home in Los Molinos and can be reached at living-green@att.net. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319- 2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445- 7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: governor@gover- nor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Ceanothus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Mont- gomery St., Suite 240, San Francis- co, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. News media challenges: Red Bluff, beyond Commentary For most, if not all, of our 23 plus years here, the Daily News has been our local staple providing essential information about our county, city, communities and neighborhoods. It is a private cor- poration and its business is to prof- itably put a daily paper together to inform local residents and help plan their activities and schedules. Examples: County and city meet- ings, local events and the never- ending supply of police/sheriff activities. Having readers' eyes, considering the inability of sub- scriptions and vending machine sales revenue to fully fund the enterprise, the paper's corollary goal is to attract advertising rev- enue from businesses seeking cus- tomers. I know this is all self-evident, but not to all. No news and infor- mation service should be sustained by the government through grants and taxes. Whether private or pub- lic in nature, those who pay for the news services hold the reins of ulti- mate control and influence over what is, or is not, given limited space on these pages. It can be a conundrum for reporters and edito- rial staff that nothing is sacred and reporting may risk offence, but the First Amendment obligation is to spare no interest or party from scrutiny and disclosure. The oblig- ation to the people trumps protect- ing advertisers who may run afoul of the law or community sensitivi- ties; likewise it would trump the government "minders," if you will, who could use the enticement or cutoff of funds to direct or control content. One can readily see that techno- logical advances and economic realities all impact a newspaper's profitability, as the publisher so effectively pointed out in Satur- day's edition. As was explained, the business model depends on adver- tisers, not unlike the Post Office. For hours of my day, the ease, free- dom and "free-ness" of the Internet provide an endless (well, I guess it ends somewhere but I haven't found it) well of information; I read, digest, corroborate and form conclusions and opinions. Some sources require payment, which I avoid; others make some content free, ask for subscriptions, or a have virtual "tip jar." On occa- sion, I utilize both. Many talk radio shows have websites that allow subscribers, for a fee, to listen to or download shows without commer- cial content, inducing people to pay for what is free on the radio. Point: there are numerous business models, but the requirement for unsubsidized ventures is profitabil- ity. Nothing is guaranteed. I strongly discourage subscrip- tion cancellation for ideological disputes with a local columnist. A variety of views are expected and, if everyone followed a recent example of cancellation, we'd all be the losers for not having a local paper, or by being left with bland, position-less content. If a colum- nist's views are on the fringe rela- tive to community mainstream, and if such writers tend to lecture the rest of us on our unsophisticat- ed intellects, welcome the political minority and take lessons from their form of advocacy. As I've said, local reporting tends to be the most balanced, while opinion is just that. There will be curmudgeonly, gadfly or conspiracy sorts of folks that will never accept plain, honest local reporting not conform- ing to their predisposed conclusions. Also, the biases and slanted cover- age of national reporting should not be held against our paper. The Daily News deserves your support; unlike the fairgrounds, there are no taxpayer-funded options. We should not be with- out either, so I encourage subscriptions from our residents and advertising from businesses whose budgets can allow it. If it comes to a per-parcel tax to replace what Jerry Brown and the Democrats have stolen from our fair, I support that also. Today's column originally intended to opine on the subject of the editor's piece on media bias as perceived by partisans seeking to prove how uninformed consumers of Fox or MSNBC news are. My "Polecat News and Views" blog has over 300 articles under the label "media bias" from the blog's beginning in June of 2009, many of which include polling on the subject. Go to DonPolson.blogspot.com and read about the most recent examples of bias, or just review over 2 years worth of headlines on biased news coverage. For now, conduct a little test of your source's veracity and balance. Last Friday's news on the drop in Don Polson The way I see it the unemployment rate, from 9 to 8.6 percent, received numerous perspectives based on available data and facts, which would have led readers or viewers to very different conclu- sions. Local channels 7 and 12/24 news came across as virtual cheer- leaders for the drop in the rate. Likewise, online reports from Associated Press could not have been more glowing, focusing almost exclusively on the "lowest (rate) since 2009" and "A glimmer of good news for Obama." Reuters and Bloomberg included a bit of less-than-encour- aging facts, while CNBC provided the "rest of the story." I don't have cable or dish and neither heard NPR, nor watched PBS and the networks. The 8.6 percent rate depended on removing well over 300,000 discouraged workers from the labor pool, almost triple the number of jobs added. When an average of 400,000 workers apply for unemployment com- pensation each week, is it remotely rational that the unem- ployment rate actually "dramati- cally declined", as administra- tion mouthpieces told us? The answer next week. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com.