The press needs to report the news—good or bad.

And the fact that the press reported on the check scammers on Capitol Hill is no reason to bash it.

People are saying that the whole check scandal was blown out of proportion by the media. In fact, it was blown out of proportion by the legislators who wrote more than 500 bad checks.

There were more than two legislators who decided to give Congress the “rubber” name. The fact is, even if one legislator wrote one bad check, the press has a right to the public to report that. After all, it is everyone’s tax dollars that are getting bounced around.

It also is the press’s duty to report on every possible angle of the story which takes plenty of space and lots of stories.

Many papers printed story after story on the scandal because the congressional actions in Washington affect the readers of newspapers. People can blame the media all they want, but if the press was censored or selective in which news to tell their readers, the people wouldn’t know what’s going on. There’s always been an adversarial relationship between the press and government, which is healthy in a democracy. Journalists are supposed to act as watchdogs to make sure politicians aren’t doing whatever their hearts desire, whether it be writing bad checks or drafting the dodge during the Vietnam war.

The press is simply reporting the facts. The people have a right to know how responsible their elected officials are.