January 9, 2003

Bias Watch: Source Not ID'd as Liberal

It would have helped readers if the Nashville City Paper reporter Joe White had bothered to mention that the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy is a liberal think tank in this swallow-and-spew-the-spin story on the "fairness" of Tennessee's tax structure. The ITEP believes no tax system is fair unless it taxes dollars earned by certain groups of people at higher rates than dollars earned by other groups of people. However, an alternate view of fairness is that every dollar should be taxed at the same rate.

By failing to mention the ITEP's liberal viewpoint, White presents the study as a credible and unbiased or neutral report rather than what it really is - propaganda in favor of a graduated income tax. He compound the error by using as his only local source of comment the equally biased "Tennesseans for Fair Taxation," and describing the group - which favors a liberal economic agenda - as merely "advocates for the poor."

Well, I'm an advocate for the poor. I advocate NOT imposing a graduated income tax on them (or anyone else) because such a tax punishes those who work hard to earn more by taking an increasing percentage of the their money, and punishes the poor especially hard as cost-of-living wages shove them into higher tax brackets even though their purchasing power remains stagnant, resulting in them paying higher tax bills and having less money to put food on the table. It also harms the economy, which hurts all people including the poor.

ITEP, incidentally, is funded by some of the most liberal foundations and organizations in America, including the Ben and Jerry Foundation, the National Education Association, the Open Society Institute, the Schumann Foundation (an anti-capitalist organization led by PBS commentator Bill Moyers), the Streisand Foundation, and Working Assets Funding Services.

Reporter White could have found all of that within 10 minutes using Google. I did. Because I want readers to know the whole truth.