The first news of the NPR/Schiller event upset and angered me.

It was an NPR broadcast in 2006 or earlier that paid attention to the different types of home mortgages being offered (such as interest-only) and the abundance of multiple speculative mortgages (like for house “flipping”) in an environment of escalating housing costs.

The broadcast questioned whether or not the existence of or potential for a housing bubble existed. Commentary mentioned that Alan Greenspan and others didn’t think so.

Did I recall that broadcast when foreclosures mushroomed after 2008? Absolutely.

I also felt a bit ill about the tape. When a two-hour recording is condensed to a 12-minute tape, the result is an incomplete report of the entire meeting.

Incomplete, however, does not excuse distortion to the point of gross error. One thing the tape did was to present material quoted by Schiller as Schiller’s own statements.

Does that mean if you write a paper on World War II and include a quotation by Hitler that someone should take the Hitler quotation as your own statement?

Last week was notable. There was the 12-minute tape full of dishonorable and gross distortions, and the death of David Broder.

America will be a better place if people subscribe to the standards of Broder and disavow the machinations of the supporters of the 12-minute tape.

I wish the “if” could become a “when,” but I will not hold my breath.

Margo L. Fraser, Lewiston