MEDIA MYTHS: Prof. Joseph Campbell: Confused and illogical: WaPo commentary on effects of ‘Cronkite Moment.’ “Not only is that passage confused and illogical: It’s historically inaccurate.”

SHOCKER: FDA Crushing Pharmaceutical Growth.

Government regulation is stifling America’s vibrant pharmaceutical industry. A recent report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology estimates that it costs an average of $1.2 billion to win FDA approval and bring a new drug to market. Given that biopharmaceuticals account for roughly two percent of the economy, this is no small matter.

The chief problem is the complex process of clinical trials, in particular “Phase 3,” in which a drug is tested and retested to prove its its effectiveness in treating conditions across a broad population. These trials have a strong track record, but they are poorly suited to new biopharmaceuticals, which are often very effective in smaller, targeted groups despite a lower success rate in the public at large. Under the current system, many of these drugs may fail their trials despite their effectiveness when prescribed correctly.

There’s a proposal for a market-based fix, but how will it fare in a command-and-control-oriented administration?

AT THIS POINT, WHO COULD TELL THE DIFFERENCE? The Slow Slide Toward State-Run Media.

AT AMAZON, markdowns and specials in the Easter Shop.

Also, today only: Save up to 65% on Select H&R Block Tax Products.

COVERAGE: Connecticut Legislator Makes Lewd Remark to 17 Year-old Girl at Hearing; Connecticut Post Fails to Tag Him as a Democrat.

HOPEY-CHANGEY: DHS built domestic surveillance tech into Predator drones. “The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has customized its Predator drones, originally built for overseas military operations, to carry out at-home surveillance tasks that have civil libertarians worried: identifying civilians carrying guns and tracking their cell phones, government documents show.”

PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: McConnell slams liberal super-PAC for tweet about wife’s ethnicity.

THOMAS SOWELL ON CASS SUNSTEIN:

Implicit in the wide range of efforts on the left to get government to take over more of our decisions for us is the assumption that there is some superior class of people who are either wiser or nobler than the rest of us.

Yes, we all make mistakes. But do governments not make bigger and more catastrophic mistakes?

Think about the First World War, from which nations on both sides ended up worse off than before, after an unprecedented carnage that killed substantial fractions of whole younger generations and left millions starving amid the rubble of war.

Think about the Holocaust, and about other government slaughters of even more millions of innocent men, women and children under Communist governments in the Soviet Union and China.

Even in the United States, government policies in the 1930s led to crops being plowed under, thousands of little pigs being slaughtered and buried, and milk being poured down sewers, at a time when many Americans were suffering from hunger and diseases caused by malnutrition.

The Great Depression of the 1930s, in which millions of people were plunged into poverty in even the most prosperous nations, was needlessly prolonged by government policies now recognized in retrospect as foolish and irresponsible.

One of the key differences between mistakes that we make in our own lives and mistakes made by governments is that bad consequences force us to correct our own mistakes. But government officials cannot admit to making a mistake without jeopardizing their whole careers.

Can you imagine a President of the United States saying to the mothers of America, “I am sorry your sons were killed in a war I never should have gotten us into”?

Read the whole thing.

COPS AND THE POLITICS OF GUNS: “An ideological chasm often exists between police officers and their desk-bound superiors.”

MICKEY KAUS: ‘Fight Club Dems’ Gotta Fight! “This seems a good window into the odd, invariably combative thinking of the media’s Obamasphere (which really does seem to track with former members of Ezra Klein’s “Journolist” group–sorry!). It’s odd for several reasons.”

IN WISCONSIN, MORE OF THE “NEW CIVILITY:” “Scott Walker Compared To Jeffrey Dahmer By Wisconsin Democratic Aide Graeme Zielinski.” Good grief.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to Spend 47 Hours on a Train and Not Go Crazy.

THE LAW OF TOO MANY WORDS.

THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.

CUBA AFTER CASTRO: “If the US loosens restrictions on American travel to Cuba, and Cuba adopts something like Panama’s special discount program for retirees, the country could experience an expat-driven financial boom.” Americans need somewhere cheap to retire to, since it’s too expensive to retire here. . . .

MORE AND MORE, SENDING YOUR KID TO GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS LOOKS LIKE PARENTAL MALPRACTICE: High School Student Disarms Gunman…Gets Suspended? “The school’s referral slip said he was given an ’emergency suspension’ for being involved in an ‘incident’ with a weapon.”

Tar. Feathers.

SO WHO’S ACTUALLY INVITED? CPAC Turns Away Pamela Geller. Is it because she supports gay marriage?

UPDATE: More here.

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Is Massachusetts more racist than Mississippi? Well, when I was a kid I carried a sign in a march against Louise Day Hicks.

UPDATE: Reader Stephen Skaggs quotes Dick Gregory: “Down South they don’t care how close I am as long as I don’t get too big, and up North they don’t care how big I am as long as I don’t get too close.”

CLAYTON CRAMER: Colorado Fights Concealed Carry on Campus: Why, Exactly? “University statistics show no correlation between carry permits and crime.”

AT AMAZON, up to 75% off on men’s clothing.

Also, women’s clothing.