IndyStar: Why Did Dental Students Cheat on Exam? It's All Bush's Fault!

May 10th, 2007 3:12 AM

Bush derangement syndrome strikes again, this time in Indianapolis, Indiana where the Indianapolis Star reports that students of the U of Indiana's Dentistry class have been caught in a massive cheating scandal. Naturally, it's all Bush's fault according to one of the so-called experts the paper interviewed for their article.

Apparently 16 students were suspended because they hacked their school computer system to get passwords that would open electronic teaching materials that contained the answers to upcoming tests. An additional 21 were given letters of reprimand for knowing of the cheating and not saying anything to school officials, a breach of the school's code of professional conduct.

So how is this all Bush's fault?

Because there's no WMDs in Iraq says Dr. Anne Koerber, an associate professor of dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"When you have persons in high places who clearly lie about what's happening with weapons of mass destruction, or CEOs who lie about where the money is going, I think the general public gets the idea that anything that makes money is what's right."

Again with the canard, so easily and often dispelled, that Bush "lied" about WMDs in Iraq. Even media darling, George Tenet, dispelled that as a lie itself.

And why is she an "expert" on this issue? Well, because she has "written about the ethics of dental education", that's why.

She seems to be an "expert" on dentistry ethics the way Karl Marx was an "expert" on economics! They've both "written" on their subject of interest, apparently, which was seemingly the important requirement.

Now, there is a matter of reporting an incident where all relevant quotes, even stupid ones, should be included in a story for publication. If one of the students had made such a statement to explain away their immorality, perhaps such a quote would be somewhat relevant to the story. But, for the Indy Star to go out of their way to include this irrelevant gem of stupidity in their story borders on a political statement and an agenda as opposed to reporting. Unfortunately, this is something that has become woefully common in the fallen field of journalism today.

I do have some questions for the good Doctor, however. Did our resident "expert" on dental ethics feel the same way about lies in high places when Bill Clinton was assuring us that he "didn't have sexual relations with that woman, Monica"? Were the lies in high places bothersome to her then? How about when a certain wife of that highly placed individual amazingly "found" a stack of missing -- and subpoenaed -- Rose Law Firm documents just lying around the residence of the President? Did that bother Mz. Koerber? Was Doc Koerber disgusted over a lapse in ethics when Vice President Al Gore was caught taking illicit campaign contributions from "nuns" from a California Buddhist Temple?

Did any of THOSE lies bother her? Or did she just come to find "lies" in the White House only recently?

Just curious.

In any case, the Indy Star can't tell the difference between reporting and advocacy. But their poor example of journalistic ethics (is that an oxymoron?) is not much different than that of any other MSM source of misinformation.

I also wonder if Mz. Koerber ever gets upset over the lies in the MSM? Or is she a "truther" who's all for the cause despite the cost?