May 3, 2023: Bank Regulations, GOP 2024 Presidential Candidates, Political News Media Landscape, What Obligations Do News Outlets Have?

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The Federal Reserve has completed its investigation into the collapse of Silicone Valley Bank. They have concluded that failure to properly regulate mid-size banks played a large role in the bank’s failure. “In the case of SVB, supervisors delayed action to gather more evidence even as weaknesses were clear and growing. This meant that supervisors did not force SVB to fix its problems, even as those problems worsened.” Their solution to the problem? More regulation. Do you agree that more government regulation will prevent failures like SVB in the future?

What has happened to the Republican Party? Here is the list of people who are running for the 2024 GOP nomination. If you look at the front-runners, I don’t see anything in them that remotely resembles the Republican Party I grew up with. I know that nobody wants to defend Trump—the likely nominee—but look at the rest of the field. Are any of these people better than Trump? Here is what President Oaks said in his April 2021 general conference talk on the constitution. “There are other duties that are part of upholding the inspired Constitution. We should learn and advocate the inspired principles of the Constitution. We should seek out and support wise and good persons who will support those principles in their public actions.” And “This process will not be easy. It may require changing party support or candidate choices, even from election to election. Such independent actions will sometimes require voters to support candidates or political parties or platforms whose other positions they cannot approve.” Are there any Republican candidates out there who are “good and wise” and who would support constitutional principles in their public actions?

Lots of news this week about the news media. CNN fired Don Lemon because of some sexist remarks he made on air, and because of allegations about how he treats women on his staff. Fox News fired Tucker Carlson because he alleged things on air that he clearly did not personally believe. Breitbart News recently told its reporters to stop covering stories that make Ron DeSantis more popular. We will talk more about the media in the big question, but I want to begin the discussion with these headlines. It seems like most political news outlets have a political agenda, and this influences not only what they cover, but also how they cover it. Are there any trustworthy news outlets, or is everyone pushing propaganda? If all political news is biased, how can a person find accurate information?

Big Question:

The First Amendment protects the freedom of the press. In part, this is because people need accurate information about what their government is doing to hold them accountable. Democracy simply cannot function properly if the people do not have access to basic information about what elected officials are doing. As such, news outlets have freedoms that other organizations do not. Several decisions allow reporters to refuse to identify their sources in court without facing c