Setting the Record Straight

How poor media coverage of the budget debate is misinforming the public

Covering the ins and outs of government and the political sausage-making that goes into the construction of state law and policy is, admittedly, a tough job. Even for Legislative Building veterans it can be a real challenge to grasp and keep up with the intricacies and vagaries of the lawmaking process. To produce accurate and informative stories that enlighten and make any sense to the general public? Well, that's even tougher - especially given the pressure of deadlines and limited time and space.

Imagine, for instance, that you are a general assignment reporter for a TV station in a modest-sized market some distance from Raleigh who's been given the task of covering a complex proposal under consideration in the General Assembly. How do you go about putting together a two minute spot for this evening's news that includes a local "angle," some attractive "visuals" and that's at all coherent  - especially if you're unable to travel to the capital?

The answer, of course, is that unless you're a truly exceptional reporter who just happens to be a policy wonk with a voracious appetite for news outside of your usual orbit (in which case you probably would have long ago been snatched up by a station in a bigger city) you won't. Instead, you'll probably fall back on what you know (or think you know) about the subject and what you've been able to glean from wire service reports and newsroom banter. Lord help the audience of such a reporter with a political agenda. 

The budget and tax debate

In a world in which most of the public actively consumed news from multiple competing outlets, such a situation might not be that big of a deal. In the real world of 21^st Century North Carolina, however, in which local TV news is the beginning and end of what hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians know about state government, such a situation is a big problem. In many instances, not only is the public ill-informed, it's completely misinformed and possessed of only the vaguest idea of what's really under consideration and why.

Perhaps nowhere is this problem more evident of late than in the current debate in the General Assembly over the state fiscal crisis. In this incredibly tough and complicated area - one in which even some of the most serious and reputable news sources have produced inaccurate and inflammatory reports on various proposals to raise revenues in order to save essential services - local TV news, in particular, is capable of leading thousands of people astray in short order.

Consider for instance, the Triad area TV station, WGHP (aka "My Fox 8") based in High Point. This week, the station ran a story on the proposal under consideration amongst budget negotiators to modernize and expand the base of the sales tax by including some services that currently escape taxation altogether. You can watch the whole two minutes and 23 seconds by clicking here.

To begin with, the story is packaged as being a part of something the station refers to as its "EconoME" series. In other words, right from the start, the story is essentially framed as a consumer story - something that TV stations are extremely familiar with in which they set themselves up as a "watchdog" for individual "pocketbooks" - rather than a story about state government and overall public welfare. 

Here are some excerpts:

• The story begins with news anchor Julie Luck stating "At a time when we're all watching our money, the state is about to ask you to shell out even more to help the budget shortfall."
• Next, her co-anchor Neill McNeill sets up reporter Brent Campbell with the closest thing in the story to a defense of the idea: "Brent, what the state Senate is proposing would bring in millions of dollars in new revenue."
• To which the Campbell, who has set himself up outside Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem in an attempt highlight the possibility of new sales taxes on movie tickets (the mall has a theater), replies: "Yeah, but in order to do that Neill, you would have to pay sales tax on things you're not used to - entertainment things for example; things like going to a movie, could be taxed."
• Campbell goes on: "Now Senate Bill 202 is meant to raise some state revenues so that more cuts can be avoided and if it's passed, even if you are not a movie buff, there's chances that you'll see this tax pop up on something else."
• He then goes on to interview a representative from a lawn maintenance firm to discuss the possibility that the sales tax could be applied to lawn services: "Under the proposed bill, sales tax would be added to contract services like lawn maintenance…And even if you mow your own lawn, the bill is so encompassing, there are likely other areas that will impact you."
• After interviewing a courier store owner who complains briefly about government spending, Campbell concludes: "Now again this bill is very fluid at this point and the things that are being talked about, or the proposals on exactly what to tax, change almost daily."      

(Full disclosure: The point of this column is not particularly to pick on Brent Campbell. To his credit, he appears to have contacted at least a few informed state government observers before proceeding with the story. He actually called me just after 4:30 p.m. - shortly before the story ran live on the evening news. I explained some basics of the legislative process and told him I would send him some memos on the topic of the sales tax later that evening. He did not say, however, that he was preparing to go live with the story shortly after we spoke.)  

Setting the record straight

As noted above, there are few topics on the state lawmaking agenda that are more complicated and controversial than tax policy. The facts in dispute can be dense and full of big numbers and the debate can be complex and hard to follow. And, of course, just about everyone dislikes the idea of paying more taxes.

Ultimately, however, these truths are only a small part of the story.

In the case of the proposed expansion of the sales tax to include additional services, there is a persuasive case to be made that the change is a fair and logical way to modernize the tax and to stop the ongoing erosion of the state revenue base in the context of a modern, service-based economy. Lawmakers have been discussing this fact for months - if not years. In addition, the current debate is taking place at a time of unprecedented fiscal crisis in which billions of dollars worth of essential services are on the chopping block. Any "news story" on the topic that fails to take note of either of these essential facts is the equivalent of a blind man describing an elephant after having only grasped its tail.

To make matters worse in the case of the WGHP, there were some basic facts about the current debate (and how state laws are made) that simply seemed to elude those putting the story together. For instance, Senate Bill 202 isn't just a tax bill as the story implied, it's the budget bill itself. And that bill is not, as the reporter stated, chock full of services that will be subjected to the sales tax; Some lawmakers have proposed a sales tax base expansion in the conference committee negotiations, but no such list has yet been put in bill form. While relatively minor in the big picture, these details only add to the overall inaccuracy of the story.               

Unfortunately, as anyone who has traveled around the state can attest, the WGHP story is assuredly not unique. The hard truth is that government policy remains one of the toughest subjects to describe in a brief story hastily constructed by reporter or producer with little relevant experience. And while there are a few notable exceptions - particularly in the Triangle area - a large proportion of the news media outlets in the state continue to practice this brand of half-baked journalism.

The upshot of all this is that as long as large numbers of North Carolinians continue to get the bulk of their news from such sources, proponents of thoughtful and complex policy reforms will more than have their work cut out for them.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 9:58 am and is filed under Setting the Record Straight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.