RANKING: Press misses full story

The front-page headline, “We’re No. 5,” in the April 18 edition of the Coeur d’Alene Press was misleading. The “study” referred to in this article was produced by a private organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), with a very specific legislative agenda. This “study” is an attempt to obscure the fact that Idaho sits at No. 50 in most standards that evaluate state commitment to public education and 50th in median income. Meanwhile we are No. 1 in the percentage of people working for minimum wage.

This “study” focused primarily on potential. Of course when you are at the bottom there is nowhere to go but up. But it’s ludicrous to brag about the potential you’ve created by bringing the state to dead last with your legislative agenda.

The most troubling aspect of this article was that the writer of it, a Coeur d’Alene Press employee, presented portions of the “information” from this “study” as conclusive fact. It is one thing to report what a study concludes, and quite another to have the reporter state an assertion from the study as fact. This is not a good practice for any newspaper. It makes readers wonder whether the article is the voice of ALEC, the voice of the writer or the voice of the paper.

If The Press wants to print a spin study by ALEC, an organization funded by people like the Koch brothers, whose objective is to provide extremist legislators with ready-made language to create legislation ALEC would like to see enacted, that’s disturbing enough. But the Coeur d’Alene Press should be careful about having their writers hop on board in print.

STEPHEN D. BRUNO

Coeur d’Alene