This piece by opinion columnist Stuart Leavenworth appeared in the Sacramento Bee. (Registration may be required.) Increasingly, the media is beginning to report the truth about 71. It was a big con job that is going to cost the state billions of dollars. Once the Institute for Regenerative Medicine formally decides not to share royalties with the state, the jig will officially be up.
This does not necessarily mean that polls will show an immediate drop in support for 71, however. Unfortunately, with so much information vying for people’s attention, it takes repetition-repetition-repetition, and television-television-television, to move public opinion. I remain unconvinced that the media, generally in the tank for Big Biotech, will provide the high profile coverage necessary to alert most people that they were had.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
