A long time ago, when I lived in New York City the first time, then Mayor Ed Koch’s tag line was “How am I doin’?” Voters mostly loved it – and him. But if you put the same question to citizens now about the mass media, they’d answer quite differently. They don’t trust the media in general. And the media’s scores on various indices from accountability to transparency are low.
A recent report issued by LeaderEthics Wisconsin, a non-partisan organization dedicated to citizen education and promoting ethical leadership among government officials, presents a good summary of the problem.
We’re fans of the group – of what they do and how they do it. Their founders are educators and public servants with a deep commitment to democracy, civility, and working across the aisles. Though their reports focus on Wisconsin, they contain much else that citizens everywhere will find informative, useful, and, perhaps most importantly right now, inspiring. You can find out all about the group’s recent public work here.
