MediaWatch: February 1995
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: February 1995
- The Newt-Centric Media Universe
- NewsBites: Partisans and Pansies
- Revolving Door: NBC Goes Left with Moyers
- ABC News Argues Voters Don't Really Want Contract with America
- The Tyrannical Pope
- Regulation: A Burden?
- CNN's on the Bill Schneider Contract
- Janet Cooke Award: PBS: Clinton Fails the Liberal Litmus Test
Regulation: A Burden?
Rather than the normal piece highlighting the need for tougher regulations to protect people from evil corporations, CBS reporter Terence Smith shed some light on how the government has overburdened and overregulated society with ridiculous rules.
In a January 15 Sunday Morning piece Smith introduced viewers to New York attorney Philip Howard whose new book "argues that common sense is the principal casualty in regulatory law." The book, Smith explained, supplies "a compilation of regulatory horror stories, both outrageous and inane." Howard illustrated his point with several stories, including one involving Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity, who wanted to rehabilitate an abandoned building in order to provide a shelter for 64 homeless men. Yet, no one could waive a city code requiring what would be an expensive and useless elevator in the building, and so Mother Teresa went elsewhere.
Smith also told his audience the story of Lancaster, New Hampshire, where "the federal government is insisting that the town, population 3,500, spend twice its annual budget for a water treatment plant that residents say they can't afford and don't need." The town says it can install a simpler system to assure safe drinking water for around $30,000. Allowing time for the other side, Smith gave EPA administrator Carol Browner the chance to respond to the town planner's charge that federal regulators wouldn't listen to him.
In an example of how overlapping regulations conflict, Smith cited the case of the Parks Sausage Company of Baltimore: "Agriculture Department regulations require this floor to be washed repeatedly during the day. But occupational safety rules insist that it be dry so workers will not slip."
Smith concluded: "By one estimate, the body of regulatory law now totals some 100 million words. And whether it's applied to small business, or small towns, common sense says, that's too much."
