By in
Rhode Island’s Future
Corporate-controlled media spewing out garbage like this to the masses, that’s how.
Of course, such a breach
of journalistic ethic comes via a Providence Journal editorial about
legislation that would prevent cities and towns from reducing the number of
daily firefighter shifts from four to three supported by some blatant
falsehoods and – of course – some grandiose overstatements of the issues
importance.
“Rhode Island has suffered
for too long from high taxes, a miserably poor business climate and high
unemployment,” is actually the lede of the editorial. “Those who have suffered
the most are members of the middle class, who struggle to get by, and the poor,
robbed of the means to lift themselves out of poverty.”
Spare me the feigned
interest in the poor and middle class.
The issue emanates from a
longstanding legal feud in North Kingstown. No one in North Kingstown – or
anywhere for that matter – is in poverty or will be lifted out of it depending
on how many firefighters work on a given day.
At worst, it’s deception.
The reality is the assault
on firefighters in Rhode Island is being largely led by affluent small
government activists, like Barrington Republican Ken Block and ProJo editorial
writer Ed Achorn. The two seem to have an unofficial playbook on how to
whitewash propaganda.
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| Ken Block: He may not rush into burning buildings but he's great at rushing to get in front of TV cameras |
Block, under the guise of
analysis, gins up a report to make it seem like government needs to be smaller.
In this case, he cherry-picked random cities around the country and compared
their first response costs with Rhode Island’s.
First responders say he failed
to account for different structures and other anomalies when he did so.
Nevertheless, enter Ed Achorn’s role in the scam. The ProJo op/ed page then
passes off the fuzzy math as gospel. Thus, despite very fair critiques of
Block’s work, the ProJo op/ed page reports it as, “As has been well documented,
Rhode Island’s fire costs are dramatically higher than in other states.”
The misstatements get
worse. Much worse.
“Some in the Assembly have
argued that changing shift structures to run departments more efficiently is an
attempt to get free labor out of firefighters or threaten their safety, or the
public’s.”
Reality: nobody thinks
this is a conspiracy to injure firefighters or the public. Many people,
however, think this is a penny-wise and pound foolish way to lower taxes by
overworking first responders, which can have life or death consequences. If
this is what the writer meant, he or she did harm to this very valid point.
I
fear that this was not botched writing but rather malevolent writing, intended
to misinform the public and belittle an opposing viewpoint. I highly doubt
“some in the Assembly” suggested as much; it’s more likely the writer thought a
fake argument could be pinned on fictional legislators – a grave abuse of
journalism.
“At the very least, this
matter cries out for further study and full public debate before the Assembly
acts,” reads a line towards the end of the op/ed.
Like all important
political issues, this one deserve more than just study and public debate. It
deserves honest study and honest public debate, the kind Rhode Islanders aren’t
getting from the Providence Journal op/ed page anymore.
Bob Plain is the
editor/publisher of Rhode Island's Future. Previously, he's worked as a
reporter for several different news organizations both in Rhode Island and
across the country.