McHenry County Blog

Randy Hultgren

Joe Walsh

Freshmen Congressmen Joe Walsh and Randy Hultgren were taken to the woodshed in radio ads run at least on WBBM and WGN Thursday.

They were two of many who wished to defund the largest abortion provider in America.

The ad, of course, did not mention that Planned Parenthood does abortions.

It mentioned services like pap smears. Services, of course, that could be gotten just about anywhere…unlike abortions.

You will remember that McHenry County Blog revealed that none of Planned Parenthood’s Illinois facilities have a license from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

And, it’s not that other abortion clinics aren’t licensed.

They are, as you can read in this article.

The ad tells of how long Planned Parenthood has been around, but not a word about the racist approach that founder Margaret Sanger took during the eugenics movement to purify America. Many opinion leaders supported that approach in the early part of the 1900′s.

Yesterday while picking my son up at school a little after 2 o’clock, I heard the female newsreader talking about Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed “one percent” income tax increase.

Did whoever wrote the script pass junior high school math?

Those who have darker views of this gross mistake might wonder if WBBM management is trying to frame the 33% income tax hike issue in a manner that might dampen down opposition.

You know whenever a news source says the increase is “one percent” or even “one percentage point” that it is trying to minimize the magnitude of the increase.

If a news source uses both “33%” and “one percentage point” in its report, then it’s attempting to describe what’s happening in a more rational manner.

This is not the first instance of media bias on this issue that I have noticed.

Here we go again.

The liberal apologists in the media are promoting the Governor Pat Quinn’s 33% income tax increase as a “one percent increase.”

Maybe it’s not their liberal bent.

Maybe they have problems with math.

The first notice of this impairment I heard was on WBBM News Radio 78 while picking up my son from school just after 2 PM. The announcer led into the tax hike story by saying it was a

“one percent increase.”

The reporter on the story got it right.

He identified it immediately thereafter as a “33% increase.”

Charles Thomas incorrectly describes Governor Pat Quinn's proposal as a "one percent increase."

hen, on the ABC Channel 7 newscast, Charles Thomas, the man who replaced Andy Shaw, said it was

a “one percent increase.”

Capitol Fax had this incorrect story up from shortly before Governor Pat Quinn's 33% income tax hike proposal was made.

I later noticed that Rich Miller at Capitol Fax Blog headlined his income tax article with the incorrect “one percent tax hike for schools.”

Specifically:

Budget address live blog – Quinn proposes one percent tax hike for schools

Wednesday, Mar 10, 2010
• Have at it in comments. Thanks.

That was just before Quinn’s noon speech.

Added later:

* I’m told that the one percent tax surcharge would bring in somewhere between $2.8 and $3 billion. Wish I knew that when I was on live TV and was asked the question cold.

None of the readers for over six hours pointed out that Governor Pat Quinn's proposal was for a 33% income tax hike, not the 1% hike Rich Miller pomoted with his incorrect headline and description.

It was not until more than SIX hours later that anyone corrected Miller:

- Elin – Wednesday, Mar 10, 10 @ 6:13 pm:A one percent tax increase would bring in far less than $2.8 billion or $3 billion. A 33 percent tax increase, on the other hand…

And, as of over nineteen hours after it was originally posted, it remains incorrect.

But, it served its purpose, if, indeed, it was deliberate and not a mistake.

Reporters and political opinion leaders all over the state were told it was a “one percent tax hike.”

Can it be that reporters really so bad at very simple math?

Maybe so.

Even the Chicago Sun-Times got it wrong:

Even the Chicago Sun-Times wrote one percent was the size of the tax hike. Message to liberal tax hikers: one percentage point divided by three percentage points equals 33%, not 1%.

Earlier today, I apparently misread what I heard and didn’t hear before two political advocacy ads on News Radio 78.

Illinois State Rifle Association web site masthead.

The Illinois State Rifle Association is running an ad which encourages people who support the Second Amendment rights to bear arms to come to Springfield for its annual lobby day on March 10th.

Before that ad is a disclaimer pointing out that it is a political ad.

Illinois Trial Lawsyers Association web site masthead.

A second ad sponsored by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association asking for insurance company reform is also on the air.

But it had no warning that it is a political ad.

I emailed Mark A. Day, the station’s ad manager, last night asking for clarification and his reply disabuses me of my conspiratorial thoughts that political organizations on the right hand side of the political spectrum are being treated less favorably than those on the left hand side.

Day emailed that both ad should have disclaimers:

“I didn’t hear the ads yesterday but both should have disclaimers.

“Might have been a production error……or just a glitch.  Sometimes the system jumps.

“Thank you for bringing it to our attention.  I’ll let the newsroom know.”

Over a two-day period, I heard two issue advocacy radio ads on WBBM.

One was preceded by a disclaimer saying it was a political ad.

The other wasn’t.

The one with the disclaimer, making it less likely that people would pay attention to it, in my opinion, was sponsored by the Illinois State Rifle Association. It was a membership pitch, but it also urged people to come to Springfield for the annual day of lobbying, March 10th.

The one without a disclaimer was paid for by the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. It knocked back doctors and insurance companies and urged passage of legislation to more tightly regulate insurance companies.

Both groups are powerful state lobbies.

One is closely with Democrats and depends on money to work its will.

The other has closer ties to Republicans, but has much support among Downstate Democrats.

You get one guess which special interest group’s ad that WBBM News Radio 78 put the the political ad disclaimer in front of to catch my attention.

= = = = =

Read an update here.

Here’s a perk that state legislators don’t have.

WBBM radio is reporting on cars that Illinois congressmen lease at taxpayer expense.

On the list is 16th district congressman Don Manzullo.

Here’s what is in the article about Manzullo:

“Rep. Don Manzullo of Rockford who leases a 2007 flex fuel Mercury Mountaineer for $465/month which gets 13 mpg city/18 mpg highway.”

Congresswoman Melissa Bean (D-8th District) did not make the list.

The story adds,

“In addition to allowing members of Congress to charge taxpayers for the car leases, House rules allow them to put auto insurance and gasoline to run the cars on the taxpayer tab.”

Here’s a perk that state legislators don’t have.

WBBM radio is reporting on cars that Illinois congressmen lease at taxpayer expense.

On the list is 16th district congressman Don Manzullo.

Here’s what is in the article about Manzullo:

“Rep. Don Manzullo of Rockford who leases a 2007 flex fuel Mercury Mountaineer for $465/month which gets 13 mpg city/18 mpg highway.”

Congresswoman Melissa Bean (D-8th District) did not make the list.

The story adds,

“In addition to allowing members of Congress to charge taxpayers for the car leases, House rules allow them to put auto insurance and gasoline to run the cars on the taxpayer tab.”

At my Oberlin College Class of 1964’s fifth reunion, I asked one of the government professors, Reich, I believe, why political scientists didn’t study corruption.

He told me it was the grease that made the gears of government move or something very close to that.

In other words, it was no big deal.

In my third year as McHenry County Treasurer, I didn’t think the answer made sense.

I had been reading weekly, sometimes daily, of the corruption of Cook County Assessor Parky Cullerton. Cullerton and other investors in Plum Tree National Golf Course on Route 14 in McHenry County between Woodstock and Harvard had miraculously received the most dense zoning ever granted in unincorporated McHenry County.

The town homes (I think) have not been built because of soil conditions for septic fields, I suppose.

But, that’s where the McHenry County Democratic Central Committee holds its golf day, attesting to the club’s party pedigree.

Since 1969, scholars have studied political/governmental corruption.

That came home as I was driving to pick up my son at South Elementary School on the day former Governor George Ryan went to prison.

I was listening to WBBM Radio to catch up on news I had missed while trying to replace some of the sleep I lost staying up until 5 AM writing articles about the Tuesday Crystal Lake city council and McHenry County College board meetings.

“Holy Trinity of Corruption” was what I heard.

And guess what state was one of the three?

No fair.

You’ve been reading newspapers and watching the news all the time you have lived in Illinois. That confers an unfair advantage.

The WBBM-AM story quoted Dr. Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

The part of the story that caught my attention follows:

“I often kid that the holy trinity of corruption is New Jersey, Illinois and Louisiana… I’m sure the vast majority of the people in Illinois, but they’re not enforcing the standards of honesty. When they go to the polls, it ought to be one of the first questions they ask: Is so-and-so honest?”

”Sabato says the people of Illinois are far too tolerant, electing and re-electing politicians they like for whatever reason, and tolerate whatever they do.”

At my Oberlin College Class of 1964’s fifth reunion, I asked one of the government professors, Reich, I believe, why political scientists didn’t study corruption.

He told me it was the grease that made the gears of government move or something very close to that.

In other words, it was no big deal.

In my third year as McHenry County Treasurer, I didn’t think the answer made sense.

I had been reading weekly, sometimes daily, of the corruption of Cook County Assessor Parky Cullerton. Cullerton and other investors in Plum Tree National Golf Course on Route 14 in McHenry County between Woodstock and Harvard had miraculously received the most dense zoning ever granted in unincorporated McHenry County.

The town homes (I think) have not been built because of soil conditions for septic fields, I suppose.

But, that’s where the McHenry County Democratic Central Committee holds its golf day, attesting to the club’s party pedigree.

Since 1969, scholars have studied political/governmental corruption.

That came home as I was driving to pick up my son at South Elementary School on the day former Governor George Ryan went to prison.

I was listening to WBBM Radio to catch up on news I had missed while trying to replace some of the sleep I lost staying up until 5 AM writing articles about the Tuesday Crystal Lake city council and McHenry County College board meetings.

“Holy Trinity of Corruption” was what I heard.

And guess what state was one of the three?

No fair.

You’ve been reading newspapers and watching the news all the time you have lived in Illinois. That confers an unfair advantage.

The WBBM-AM story quoted Dr. Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

The part of the story that caught my attention follows:

“I often kid that the holy trinity of corruption is New Jersey, Illinois and Louisiana… I’m sure the vast majority of the people in Illinois, but they’re not enforcing the standards of honesty. When they go to the polls, it ought to be one of the first questions they ask: Is so-and-so honest?”

”Sabato says the people of Illinois are far too tolerant, electing and re-electing politicians they like for whatever reason, and tolerate whatever they do.”