Normally, North Jersey Media Group’s youth publication Exit Weekly is mostly filled with lifestyle pieces and other stories designed to reach that oh-so-coveted 18-24 demographic. We’d noticed that the majority of times the paper turned to news, it was with a heaping load of cynicism. I guess the thinking is, “the kids don’t give a shit, so why should we?” It’s much funnier and cooler not to care, or so we’ve heard.
Sometimes, though, the weekly paper covers real issues without the snark -- last week’s story on the proposed municipal sales tax was an example. That’s great, and we applaud any effort the newspaper makes to do actual news reporting. But the article in question, “Towns May Rob Peter to Pay Property,” ends up reading like a press release from the Cato Institute.
One of the main sources for the article is Steve “Spanish Makes My Ears Bleed” Lonegan, the mayor of Bogota, who has recently made media waves by protesting a Spanish-language McDonald’s billboard in his borough. Lonegan not only gets the first word in the story, but he gets the last word as well. In fact, he gets four quotes in the story, just as many as Gregg Edwards, identified as “president of the Center for Policy Research in New Jersey.”
What Exit leaves out is Lonegan’s other role, which is certainly more relevant to the story – his position as executive director of the NJ branch of Americans for Prosperity, a group that advocates for “limited governments and free markets.” In other words, a group that wants as little tax as possible, and works politically to achieve that goal.
Edwards’ position could have also been clarified. At first glance, his think tank seems like an innocuous state policy institute. But Edwards’ Center is partisan, and they, like Americans for Prosperity, come in on the Right, and believe in as little government as possible.
The reader is left with the impression that Lonegan is simply looking out for his constituents in Bogota, and that Edwards is speaking for the “everyman.” But these are the sorts of people who are working to dismantle public education, public health, social services, and anything else funded by the state.
It’s fine if Exit wants to take up the libertarian position and advocate for “the free market” – but it’s not OK for the paper to present such a slanted story in the guise of a regular-‘ole news story.
To make matters worse, Exit quotes Lonegan as saying NJ “now has the fourth highest state sales tax in the United States.” This is true on the surface. But as the story later mentions and basically tosses aside, 35 other states permit towns or counties to levy their own sales tax. So while Lonegan is correct that NJ’s state sales tax is the fourth highest, the average combined state and local sales tax in the country is 7.48 percent – so NJ is not only not on the top of the list, it actually falls below the national average.
As a study by NJ Policy Perspective, a progressive think tank, shows, sales tax can also be measured in a per-capita fashion, by dividing the revenue raised in a state by the number of people that live there. This is probably the most common-sense way to measure a sales tax – to look at what the average person is paying. For a combination of general and excise sales taxes, NJ comes in at 14th in the nation.
So, again, while Lonegan (and Exit) were technically correct about the “fourth-highest” statistic, a little context may have helped. We think the same could be said for the entire story.
Editors’ note: If we sound more than a little bitter about Exit Weekly, it’s because we are. We’re envious of their money, plain and simple. We know that if someone gave City Belt the same financial wherewithal given by North Jersey Media Group to Exit, we could do the sort of alternative, independent journalism New Jersey so desperately needs.
Media Massage features insightful media criticism and reporting on the New Jersey press.
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