INTEGRITY

It is somewhat disheartening to realize how degraded many of our institutions have become, once ideology was accepted as an excuse for abrogating ethics. Journalism is of course the most familiar discipline to succumb to the concept that some things are too important for principles. They are not alone, however. During the Clinton impeachment hearings, the Journal of the American Medical Association rushed into print an article of questionable scientific merit, regarding what is and is not considered sex. This was a clumsy political stunt that inevitably tarnished the reputation of peer-reviewed scientific literature. This episode was followed by the Lancet's bogus inflation of Iraqi war casualties, and the embarrasingly incestuous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's politically motivated and insultingly un-scientific report on global warming.

It should of course immediately cast doubt on the ideologies compelling such dishonesty, that they require shading, spinning and concealment of the facts for their advancement. Perhaps we would all do well to remember why integrity was at one time considered a virtue instead of an impediment to the march of doctrinal fantasies.