She brings in an academic with an Economist column--and builds to:
Recognize that people and the news stories they create are rarely simple. "All of us need to stop and say, 'If this person or group really is blameworthy, how do we know?'" Wyatt said. "With the economy, which is an extremely complex area, how do we know where to place blame? We need to ask the questions to be able to figure it out."
Most important, try to develop "a generosity of spirit, which means resisting the urge to tear people down," Wyatt said.One senses the rubber is not ever going to be asked to hit the road. We have lots of dumb criticism and some smart criticism. So?
The solution is not to inculcate ever greater reticence in the chattering classes; there's considerable danger that, in stigmatizing criticism, we aid and comfort the worst offenders. (Criticism is already strongly frowned upon, in our community.) When people in the public square assign unfair or excessively personal blame, the best solution is to publicly call attention to it--and come to the defense of those unfairly singled out.
Many people play-act as public-stage actors but in fact discourage undeferential discussion of their ideas. Local publicly-subsidized clerics (i.e. all of them) make many easily-debunked, stupid claims, though they forbid public response on their websites. Such clowns deserve far more criticism--aka blame--than they have yet received.
