Funny, but I didn’t find much about the criticism of former FBI director James Comey on The New York Times website last Friday.
That was the day after the Justice Department’s internal investigator, Michael Horowitz, blasted Comey for being deceitful about memos he leaked, through a friend, to The Times.
I’m not going to criticize The Times for allowing Comey to use it to get information he wanted out to the public. Every journalist is in that position at one time or another.
But it’s still embarrassing when the public gets to see how news stories come about. It’s not a whole lot less disgusting than the way sausages are made.
Here’s my guess for what happens next:
Comey isn’t off the hook yet. And The Times had better be prepared for more embarrassment when the rest of Horowitz’s investigations on what the FBI did under Comey comes out.
The reporter who got the memo from Comey in the now-criticized instance also was part of a team that, back in 2017, wrote a story on direct contact between Trump advisers and Russian officials before the 2016 election.
It was a blockbuster attempt to prove collusion between Trump’s people and the Russians. And, as the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller proved, it was also untrue.
But you didn’t have to wait for Mueller’s report to know that. On June 9, 2017, The Times reported — not very publicly –— that Comey said of the paper’s Trump/Russia article “in the main, it was not true.”
Maybe that’s why Comey decided to start leaking stuff to The Times. At least the paper would get something right.
A lot of people weighed in on my recent column about college students wasting money by pursuing degrees that will result in too much debt and not a big enough paycheck when they get a job.
I recently mentioned a masters degree that I have that wasn’t helpful in my career. This is part of a comment from a reader that shows just how tricky it is to pick the right field of study.
John: “Many high school students applying to colleges have no idea what course of study to pursue because they have not yet decided on a career choice. Wouldn’t it make more sense to first find out where there is a demand before deciding on a career path?
When that has been decided, then one should decide whether to go to college or to trade school.” J.J.C.
Dear J.J.C. That would be very smart to do. But here’s the problem. The job market can, and often does, change from the time a kid enters college to the time he graduates. That was usually four years back when I was in school; more now.
Also, there is a lot to be said about going into a profession that you will enjoy for the rest of your life. It isn’t only about earning a living. Plumbers shouldn’t be writers. And writers shouldn’t be under sinks – as I can attest from personal experience.
What’s really needed in picking a career is a lot of luck. So good luck to everyone going back to school.