NRA Suits. Ever Heard of Buy One Get One Free? [More]And as the story goes, the emperor was really naked. Which brings me to another point that seems to have gone off the radar: What's the deal with the "intern"?
I haven't heard anyone claim it's all made up. Why not?
I don't care if the wagon-circlers are "not inclined" to discuss anything outside of their professionally crafted, weasel-worded obfuscation -- they're the ones who need members to trust them enough to send money, not the other way around. And until that gets unequivocally cleared up, it not only gives credence to things being what they look like, it is also profoundly unfair to the reputation of the young lady in question and the impact that will have on her life.
If it's not what it looks like, a good way to prove it would be to show where other interns have received similar accommodations as a matter of policy. They owe it to her.
In a past life, I used to do corporate policies and procedures, and such expenditures would be authorized and in accordance with approved and auditable criteria. If they don't have such expenditure controls, that brings up a whole 'nother level of unacceptably irresponsible fiscal practices. No wonder they say they're going broke.
If Fairfax doesn't come up with some credible documentation -- instead of digging in their heels and acting like anyone demanding accountability is a Bloomberg stooge -- the understandable default conclusion many will come to is that things are what they look like.
That, too, is grossly unfair to her.
Because if it is what it looks like, then she is being left to dangle in the wind while her "benefactor" hides. That's what Bill and Hillary did to young, impressionable and infatuated Monica, and look what her name will forever be synonymous with.
Such behavior is the mark of a coward and a cad, and anyone who gives money to such is a fool. A man -- and I know the term as intended is "unfashionable" these days" -- takes responsibility for the bad he owns, as well as the good.
So which is it? Silence is unacceptable.
[Via Mack H]
4 comments:
Reading your post jiggled something similar loose in my memory.
Remember when DEA agent Lee Paige shot himself in front of a class of school children, then sued the DEA for releasing the video and making him look like a fool?
Mr. LaPierre, Ack Mac didn't make you look like a fool any more than the DEA made Agent Paige look like one. You both did that all by yourselves.
And in the process, you may have made a young woman look like a whore in the eyes of an entire nation.
But damn, those suits look good. So all's well that ends well, right?
" ... professionally crafted, weasel-worded obfuscation"
Thou Shall not Bear False Witness.
That needs to end. Or else.
Silence is unacceptable.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
But whether or not they choose to accept and admit it, "no answer" is its own answer.
Whether or not they're "inclined to discuss," discussions are happening, with or without them.
Whether or not all the expenditures were on the up-and-up, failing to get out in front of the issues and confront them head-on is a gross (and willful) dereliction of duty on the part of the Board of Directors.
"No answer" creates an information vacuum, and the vacuum will be filled -- if not by fact and truth, then by rumor, speculation, and outright falsehood. As the saying goes, a lie makes it halfway around the world before the truth gets its shoes on. "No answer" ties the shoelaces into a Gordian knot and allows the lie to spread and propagate unimpeded.
It's not the silence so much as the information vacuum that's unacceptable, but the silence certainly isn't helping matters.
Not living in DC, I find it hard to imagine a non-taxable foundation paying $50k a year per intern for housing as a normal expense.
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