In case you were having a hard time following the issue (I was), Slate has Massachusetts’ public defender crisis all sorted out for you. In essence, the state has itself to blame for the problem, because it has opted for a defender-for-hire system instead of keeping on regular public defenders. The blame crosses party lines, with lawmakers expanding this ad-hoc system in face of a tight recessionary budget and the governor touting it, eager as he was to present his fiscal leadership was as wise efficiency reform rather than across-the-board cutting. As Ben at Romney is a Fraud points out, the Governor’s indignation in the face of a defender “strike” (the term doesn’t exactly apply) is downright hypocritical.
If anything, the episode points up the limits of television news. I hate to buy into kneejerk print chauvinism, but here the local networks simply gave us a counterpoint between Romney’s news conferences and lawyers’ talking head statements. No adequate explanation of the issue that might help viewers adjudicate between the two claims. They couldn’t in fact give such an explanation because to do so would have seemed biased.
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