As negotiations continue of the financial reform package in Congress, The Washington Post’s Brady Dennis regurgitates a discredited GOP talking point:  that the $150 billion, as Dennis reports, “paid for by the industry,” is a “bailout fund.”

I give him credit for mentioning that the money would come from the industry, but why does he feel compelled to repeat the GOP’s reference to it as a “bailout fund.”  By the most common understanding of the phrase a “bailout” is when other people’s money, usually the American taxpayer, saves a company.  The fund, which was dropped from the legislation according to The Post’s story, was to be financed by financial institutions.  It’s not a “bailout,” and there is nothing in using the term that adds to the story, except perhaps to perpetuate a lie.

Is that the role of the news media?