1. What types of bias is Lee Habeeb illustrating in his analysis of the scandal at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs [VA] medical facilities?

2. Mr. Habeeb makes the following assertions about the media:

• A free press can and should keep government honest
• The VA story is about systemic corruption at one of our biggest federal agencies. This story is not about what departed VA secretary General Eric Shinseki knew and when he knew it, or about what President Obama knew - or should have known. It’s about federal bureaucracies and how they too often serve themselves instead of their customers. Where are the journalists covering it?
• To some Americans, the VA scandal, though outrageous, stands as an outlier. To those of us who worry about what can happen when unelected bureaucrats have no check on their power, the VA horror is predictable. We know that it represents only the tip of the federal-agency iceberg. Can you imagine what a team of hardworking (or even halfway diligent) journalists might uncover if they spent a lot of time investigating the VA, or HUD, or the waste and fraud in Medicare, or the abuse in our skyrocketing disability programs, or the scams and fraud in food stamps?
• Thomas Lifson at the American Thinker blog writes, “the problem will not be solved by adding dedicated leaders and staff; they also no doubt exist in the VA health-care system. People who can’t be fired and who know that no matter what they do, their organization will continue to exist inevitably become self-serving. This is the moral hazard of government-funded bureaucracies.” That’s the real crux of the VA crisis. That’s the story that’s not really being told, because we don’t have the storytellers - the journalists - who are interested in telling it. If NPR gave that a shot, it would make a heck of a ten-week series, don’t you think?

What step(s) do you think Americans should take to encourage the media to do its job?