A. Barton Hinkle on Journalists' Licensure Hypocrisy
After Hurricane Sandy struck last fall, "Today" reporter Jeff Rossen did an exposé on how some contractors were "preying on" homeowners. How? By performing repair work without the proper licenses. Rossen found several contractors who lacked home-improvement licenses, but only one consumer who had been taken advantage of—and that was two months before Sandy struck. His big story, writes A. Barton Hinkle, boiled down to the fact that some Sandy-related tree removal and home repair work was carried out without prior government permission.