Left-leaning PPH stays the course sans objectivity

Have you ever noticed when NBC does a story that mentions General Electric, no matter in what context, news anchors always mention that NBC is partially owned by GE.

Mentioning the affiliation makes it known to all viewers that they should be aware of the relationship so they can filter and process the information properly knowing that the news is coming from a source that is subject to being influenced by its ownership.

So, given that, why is it that the Portland Press Herald when it’s slamming pretty much everything Gov. LePage does never mentions that it is owned by Donald Sussman, a heavy contributor to Democratic candidates and the husband of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine.

One of their slams today is in a story that said LePage halted bond payments approved by voters after legislators voted to raid the state’s rainy day fund to ease revenue sharing cuts to cities and towns.

Here’s the headline, a second subhed called a summary graph and the story’s lead from the Portland Press Herald:

LePage halts $33 million in bonds approved by voters

He resents lawmakers voting to use money from the rainy day fund to avert cuts to cities and towns.

Gov. Paul LePage has ordered the state treasurer to stop issuing voter-approved bonds, in response to the Legislature’s plan to use money from the state’s rainy day fund to restore aid to Maine’s cities and towns.

Now let’s dissect this travesty of journalistic objectivity.

First, the headline says voter-approved. Of course they’re voter approved. You can’t have a bond without it being voter approved, but saying voter approved stresses that he’s going against “the people.”

Now, look at this word: resents. I never saw the word “resent” in the story, yet some lefty headline writer (or a headline writer who wants to keep their job) thought that would be an elegant insert to make the governor sound petty and peevish. To be resentful is to “begrudge, be annoyed, be bitter, miffed.” Those attributes don’t sound very governor-like, do they? So that’s why they used the words. They’re trying to paint a picture that he’s somehow petty and fuming, when, in fact, he’s calmly and steadfastly looking after the fiscal strength of Maine and Mainers.

He’s also standing up against the spending Democrats who don’t want to see this state inch back from the brink, which is where the previous administrations prior to LePage took us. LePage’s programs are starting to work, but the Democrats just want to make him look bad, and Democrats run and own the Portland Press Herald.

Now let’s look at the summary graph deeper. The headline writer makes it look like LePage wants to make the little towns suffer by not restoring some of the revenue sharing funds by raiding the rainy day fund. Yeah, they want to make it look like LePage doesn’t care about the plight of the state’s cities and towns, when in fact, he does care about them, and knows when you take the money out of one pocket to put it in another, well, you took it from somewhere it might have been needed.

Without a certain amount of money in the rainy day fund, the state’s credit rating goes down. And guess what? We pay more for the bonds. We pay more for tax anticipation notes. We pay more in interest. Gee, I wonder who pays for that! You guessed it: the taxpayer. And when you’re paying higher interest, that’s just money out the window. You have nothing to show for it.

And let’s face it. The Rainy Day fund is there for a rainy day, not to restore funding already cut.

Oh, sure the Portland Press Herald put in some quote by the governor’s press secretary to show they covered both sides, but they buried it in the story and crafted an elegant lead slam on LePage.

Just for fun, let’s look at an alternative headline, summary graph and lead:

LePage calls raid on Rainy Day fund reckless

The governor notes that without a viable Rainy Day fund, Maine’s credit rating will suffer and taxpayers will end up paying the bill

Gov. Paul LePage halted the issuance of about $33 million in state bonds this week as he sought to leverage legislators who want to raid the Rainy Day fund to lessen revenue sharing cuts to Maine cities and towns, a move LePage called risky and short-sighted.

I have to admit I like the rewrite.

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