Fresh on the heels of shooting a big hole in The Star’s “coverage” of the proposed half-cent sales tax for “translational medical research,” I’m now turning the big guns on The Examiner.
It used to be the The Independence Examiner, but I guess they now see themselves as a mighty journalistic force throughout Eastern Jackson County.
Ever so often, it seems, The Examiner publishes something called the EJC Business Review, which essentially is a puff-piece special section that strokes various business interests, including local chambers of commerce and economic development councils.
At The Star, we used to publish similar sections, calling them “Progress” editions. The reporters and editors hated doing them, but the cop-out wasn’t as transparent as The Examiner’s Business Review.
The idea behind such sections, from a newspaper’s standpoint, basically is: If you advertise in the section, we’ll give you some good press.
You might say, “What about that so-called wall between the ad side and the editorial side?” Well, sometimes the wall is conveniently ignored for the sake of money.
Anyway, a friend whose office is in Independence gave me the section the other day, and it is the mother of all suck-ups.
It’s 32 pages and has lots of ads, including what appear to be a lot of legally mandated notices, such as patent filings.
But what really galled me was a front-page story titled “The next BIG thing?” — about the proposed half-cent sales tax for “translational medical research.” The measure will be on the Nov. 5 ballot throughout Jackson County.
As you know, I am consumed with the issue. It is the worst tax proposal I’ve seen during my 44 years in Kansas City, and I’m doing all I can to bring its many flaws to people’s attention.
(You can read all about it at stopabadcure.org, a website financed by a campaign committee that I’m leading.)
“The next BIG thing” was written by The Examiner’s main business reporter, Jeff Fox, who also edited the section.
Fox’s story covers 38 column inches, including a full inside page and part of another. The story features a photo of Dr. Wayne O. Carter, president and CEO of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, which is a big promoter of the sales-tax increase.
The photo caption quotes Carter as saying…
“This is big. This is transformational for Kansas City.”
In the story, Fox does everything but beg readers to vote for the tax.
Fox quotes Carter extensively, but if you’re looking for balance — that is, the other side of the story — it’s in very short supply.
Jeff Fox
Fox relegates the opposition to three inches — out of, remember, 38 inches. In that space, he paraphrases — doesn’t even quote directly — Brad Bradshaw, a Springfield lawyer and physician who directs an opposing committee called Citizens for Responsible Research.
It’s clear that Fox didn’t even bother to call Bradshaw — just gave him a couple of throwaway graphs. Of course, Fox didn’t bother to call me, although he has met and interviewed me and knows about my Committee to Stop a Bad Cure.
Fox’s one-sided tribute is not just bad journalism; it’s dishonest journalism.
If a national journalism commission existed, it would put The Examiner on five years’ probation. And if The Examiner went on to publish a similar dog-lapping section, the commission would order the paper to stop the presses permanently.
Oh, and there’s one more thing you should know about that section: Page 15 consists of a full-page ad paid for by the Committee for Research, Treatments and Cures, which is spending $1.5 million to $2 million trying to convince voters to approve this terrible tax proposal.
The Examiner probably got about 500 bucks for that ad.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Fitz,
I am with you until the end on this *ullshit tax, but how can we fight the money being spent?
The television spot with the child with the eye ailment and potential cure…before the vote, I fear anyone in opposition will be equated with people killing puppies.
I know you are doing everything you can do, and you are to be commended. You are modest, but if we advise voters on the realities and greed, it will be from you commandeering the ship. Jim you are our “Yoda and Obie Wan.”
I hope we can get some airtime, help from Yael and the others at The Star and some social media exposure.
This tax needs to be stopped, but they have a tank command and we have a Jeep.
All of the political infighting over the ACA, politicians almost showing hatred to each other, and the fact that Americans and illegal immigrants here do not care for and about each other anymore.
Money and the banks run everything.
But we have to keep fighting…
Prayers to your family – you too.
Not a thing we can do about the money they’ve got, Larry. All we can do is talk to as many people as we can — neighbors, friends, strangers — and tell them they need to look through the fog and haze of the opposition’s $1.5 million to $2 million campaign and be sure to VOTE on Nov. 5.
When I talk to people now, it’s the first thing I say…”How do you fell about the half-cent sales tax for translational medical research?”
Also, just because people might be sympathetic toward the issue after they see a tear-jerking ad doesn’t mean they’re going to jump up and say, “I’m voting for that!” It’s still a TAX INCREASE, and how many people will be excited about running to the polls to have more money taken out of their pockets?
As a current Star reporter told me recently, “You (proponents) have to sell people on a tax increase.” When you get right down to it, this tax has very few, if any, strong selling points.
You’re a trooper, Larry…We will win the endorsement battle and I believe we will win the war. Stay positive.
P.S. Be sure to refer everyone you see to the http://stopabadcure.org/ website. After people have read a few of those posts, they will be disabused of any notion that this is a gallant proposal.
Oh jeez, there you go. Now you’ve done it, you’ve officially gone over to the dark side. Journalists writing for recognized newspapers are never anything less than perfectly objective. Now you’ve gone and falsely accused him of less than honorable motives. Obviously been keeping bad company and all this freedom of expression without the benefit of higher ups has gone to your head.
And yet, this seems to be your finest hour. Nice column, Your merit badge is in the mail.
May Joseph Pulitzer forgive me. Mea culpa, mea culpa…
But I’ll wear that merit badge proudly — right beside my “Stop a Bad Cure” button.
Fitz,
Have you given any consideration to addressing the various City Councils/Board of Aldermen in eastern Jackson County? They typically allow public comments. Unless things have changed since my eastern Jack days at The Star, the Independence, Sugar Creek and Blue Springs city councils meet on Monday evenings and Raytown meets on Tuesday evenings. And shame on The Examiner. Whenever there is a ballot issue that has some sort of organized opposition, it deserves the same amount of space that the other side gets. The Star’s computers allowed us to measure our coverage to the decimal point. And yes, I remember those Progress Editions. I always had to write the cover story every year, and, for some reason, I put a lot of effort into them. I wrote 50-inch stories about the evolution of Missouri 152 into the Northland’s 435 and Hunt Midwest’s huge impact on the Northland’s residential landscape. Anita Gorman would always leave a message the day Progress Edition ran and praise my work. If only she were an editor at The Star, perhaps I would still be there.
Do you think they’d want to hear somebody talk about why their constituents should vote against a Jackson County-proposed tax? If you’ve heard stuff like that in the past, I’ll explore.
…I had a soda with Anita today at the Panera in Westport. Guess what? She’s against the tax. Of course, she won’t get involved, mainly because she lives in Clay County, but she thinks it makes no sense.
Tony is reporting that Freedom Inc was offered more money by the pro-tax people than the anti-tax people, and also criticizes Helling’s advertorial for the tax.
John — See my Oct. 3 post. I wrote that Freedom turned down $200,000 from the Committee for Research Treatments and Cures. It was Freedom’s finest hour, ever.
Fitz,
The sales tax would have quite an impact on their constituents and the people who own businesses in their cities. That is how I would frame it. I would call the city clerks, ask if you address the council/board and then state your case.
I agree with Mike, Fitz. You should address the city councils. I know for certain that Marcie Gragg, Independence first district councilwoman and parent of a special-needs kid who is a frequent patient at Children’s Mercy, is against the tax.