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After the Christmas bombing attempt Andrew Sullivan loudly called for Janet Napolitano’s resignation. He now admits that his reaction was “ill-advised, even dumb in retrospect.” Fine. But then he says this:

But once we have very specific instances of failure, after a thorough investigation, it seems to me good management to hold individuals accountable. In the private sector for the most part, profound failures of this sort that could have led to the deaths of hundreds of people would lead to resignations and firings.

Maybe so, but I wouldn’t hold up the private sector as the model for this attitude. Not in America, anyway. As near as I can tell, it takes riots in the streets just to get apologies out of private sector executives who are responsible for disasters on their watch, let alone resignations. See Bhopal, release of methyl isocyanate by Union Carbide in, and Wall Street, collapse of, for more on this.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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