It's in the P-I

Today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an article about the Families and Education Levy: "Starbucks backs schools levy with $50,000". Unmentioned is the fact that Starbucks helped kill last year's "latte tax", which was intended to fund some of the same programs as the levy. Opposing the latte tax was the right thing to do, but the decision to donate $50K to the misguided levy campaign probably has more to do with gentle extortion or guilt than an actual endorsement of the levy itself.

But the most remarkable thing about the P-I story is its lack of balance.

[levy campaign manager Julien] Loh said public comment so far has shown no sign that voters will balk at a $116.8 million levy.

"We haven't got any push back from voters that we've gone out to talk to," he said.

Possibly because the P-I hasn't reported on the levy's shortcomings. I've e-mailed the reporter and encouraged her to write a more balanced piece. The fact that the P-I editorial board has already endorsed the levy leaves little encouragement that the paper will do a particularly thorough job of exposing the levy's dirty laundry. But the news desk is a different department so there's always hope.

More information about the Families and Education Levy may be found here.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 20, 2004 11:51 AM | Email This