The News & Observer has fact-checked the current ad for Democratic incumbent 2nd District Democrat Bob Etheridge and determined it to be “misleading.” But if that’s the case, then The News & Observer is guilty of the same offense.
Here’s what the N&O said today in its fact check of the current Etheridge ad, which claims that Renee Ellmers, Etheridge’s Republican opponent, wants to raise sales taxes 23 percent:
IS THE AD ACCURATE? It is misleading. Ellmers, who has signed a pledge against raising taxes, does support the higher sales tax, but Etheridge’s ad omits any mention that the plan she backs would replace the existing federal tax structure.
Etheridge’s ad ignores Ellmers’ stated position that she would replace the current tax system with the Fair Tax, which would replace federal personal and corporate income taxes, not add 23 percent on top of those existing taxes. That qualifies as not just misleading but downright inaccurate.
Which brings us to the N&O’s own misleading report.
Back on Sept. 22, the day the N&O vigorously fact-checked an Ellmers ad, quibbling with her use of the term “victory mosque,” Jane Stancill wrote this on the Under the Dome blog (bold added by me):
The campaign of Democratic U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge called Republican challenger Renee Ellmers’ “victory mosque” ad offensive, saying it desecrates “the hallowed ground” of New York’s World Trade Center site.
“Bob Etheridge has never thought building this mosque and community center so close to Ground Zero is a good idea,” spokesman Mike Davis said. “This political tactic is designed solely to distract voters from Ellmers’s support of a new 23 percent tax hike on middle-class families that will increase the cost of everything they buy – and kill jobs.”
“Mrs. Ellmers is desecrating this hallowed ground with her obvious and offensive attempt to raise her profile,” Davis added. “No further proof is needed that she will say anything to get elected.”
The N&O did not contest anywhere in that blog post the spokesman’s assertion that Ellmers wanted to jack up sales taxes 23 percent without a concomitant lowering of other taxes. It added no context, no information about Ellmers’ support of the 23 percent sales tax being part of a plan to lower or eliminate many other taxes. By its own reasoning, the N&O two weeks ago did exactly what the Etheridge ad did, which they today found so “misleading.”
But it gets worse. After soft-pedaling the Etheridge ad as merely “misleading,” the N&O fact-checking article by Jay Price helpfully provided some political consultation to the Etheridge team:
Etheridge, though, may have missed an opportunity to get in a sharp dig: Opponents of the tax charge that the 23 percent figure is deceptively low.
The tax’s backers calculate the tax as 23 percent of every dollar spent, meaning 77 cents for the goods or services and 23 cents for the tax. They argue that this is accurate, because it’s the way that income tax is calculated.
Opponents call that dishonest, because sales tax is normally calculated per dollar of goods purchased, for example a 6 percent sales tax means when you buy $1 of goods you pay an additional 6 cents to cover the tax. By that method, the rate would actually be 30 percent.