Swimming away in the Merrimack following the deed?
Most of you reading this have undoubtedly come to terms with the commonplace liberal bias of most of the bigger media organs. Fortunately in today’s world, there are now many choices and options available to simply bypass most of it and instead seek out the actual truth– i.e. blogs, etc. Generally, the response to the bias is to put forth the truth in another form and outlet and just ignore the slanted "journalism" altogether. As time moves forward, more and more people are gravitating away from those formerly holding a lock on mass communication, thus hastening their ultimate demise.
I’m not sure if the Hippo Press— a once-a-week Manchester paper– qualifies as ever having held any real impact, or if they are in fact considered part of the new wave of media (although with no letters provision or capability to post reader comments, it’s doubtful)– but it doesn’t really matter, because the old-style bias pattern is quite evident. The "hipsters" at the Hippo, based on a cursory read over the various editorials, are nothing more than yesterday’s big government cheerleaders slightly repackaged. I have no problem with this, as it is a free country and those that own the paper have a right to say whatever they want, just like we do here at the ‘Grok. What I do take offense from, however, is when in-depth reporting presented as news/fact reflects this same bias– and includes blatant untruths. Such is the case with the cover story of this week’s Hippo about the state of NH’s so-called anti-income tax pledge.
The piece in question is entitled "Is The Pledge starting to crumble? New Hampshire might just be ready to consider a different income tax". It is without a doubt one of the most stunningly one-sided pieces of reporting I have read in quite some time. While purporting to have delved into great detail on the question of the silly "anti-taxpayer pledge" question that appeared on some 88 annual town warrants here in the Granite State courtesy of the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition (GSFTC)– a front organization seeking to destroy the NH Advantage through broad-based taxes– the story in fact does nothing more than regurgitate the proponents’ talking points. I should know– I appeared on Arnie Arnesen’s Political Chowder TV show with the executive director of the GSFTC, Paul Henle, and heard it all first hand, pie chart and all. What is in the Hippo piece is pretty much what Paul had to say on the program.
As I stated at the top of the post, I would normally not get all that uptight about what gets printed in some left-leaning rag that I would never read anyway, so you might be wondering why I’m even writing about this at all. And actually, some of you are probably wondering why I even wasted more than a nanosecond looking at the Hippo anyway– as CNHT’s Jane Aitken said in an email, "It’s the Hippo- what did you expect?" Well, when somebody takes a shot at me or mine, I take notice. Buried within the lopsided propaganda piece was this:
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