THIS JUST IN – IT ISN'T BUSH'S FAULT - AT 5:21 P.M. ET:  History was made in American journalism today as a mainstream publication printed an article saying something wasn't the fault of George W. Bush.  Some are suggesting that this should now be a national holiday.

From, ahem, Newsweek:

The first increase in teen pregnancy in more than a decade has, unsurprisingly, led many to place blame on Bush’s heavy funding of abstinence-only education. The Guttmacher Institute report that identified the teen-pregnancy increase suggests that it has to do with "the growth of abstinence-only sex education programs at the expense of comprehensive programs." Katie Couric made a similar link on last night’s CBS News, and, over at Feminste, one of the most-read feminist blogs, they're putting it even more bluntly...

...Abstinence-only education is a polarizing issue, and its critics have an easy bandwagon to jump on. But if we take a step back and look at the relationship between funding for abstinence-only education and the teen-pregnancy rate, it’s a difficult conclusion to stand by...

...If abstinence-only education is indeed to blame for the new rise in the teen-pregnancy rate, then it would have made sense to see gains much earlier than 2005. Particularly between 1997 and 1998, when the funding of abstinence-only education increased tenfold, there should have been some indication of an uptick. But there wasn’t: in that year, the teen-pregnancy rate dropped by about 3 percent, pretty similar to drops in other years. Despite a consistent increase in abstinence-only education funds, we did not start seeing an increase in teen-pregnancy rates (or even a slowdown in the rate at which they were decreasing) until the mid-2000s.

COMMENT:  You mean, you mean we can't blame BUSH (!!)?  Apparently not.

Is something changing in American journalism?  Well, one little article is no indicator, but maybe, just maybe, some journalists will start coming to their senses, forced by sheer facts and the declining bottom lines of their once-formidable publications.  George W. Bush and Richard Cheney were not villains.  Disagree with them on specific policies if you wish, but they were officeholders who performed honorably and effectively, and did a great deal of good for their country.

January 27, 2010