Florida Bulldog rarely publishes opinion, but today we stand publicly with thousands of reporters, editors and others who bring you the news to remind you - our readers - of the crucial work done by journalists on your behalf.
By R. Jeffrey Smith, the Center for Public Integrity
Actor Dean Jagger as a fictional general in White Christmas
“What can you do with a general, when he stops being a general?” crooned Bing Crosby in the 1954 movie “White Christmas.” “Who’s got a job for a general when he stops being a general?”
Alas, the answer, 58 years later, is now clear. Retired generals don’t open ski resorts in Vermont. Instead, they hunker down in Washington as the paid employees of corporations that draw most of their income from the service branch in which the generals worked. Once there, they work to maintain a stream of funding from the public treasury.