A Short-lived Trend...?

Or a double standard? You decide.

Just a couple days ago I wrote about the Tribune's insistence on pointing out that a woman who wrote a pro-Bush column worked for an institute funded in part by evil pharmaceutical companies. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but I was hoping that the Tribune had turned over a new leaf and would now start providing us with a little background about its guest columnists.

Yup, it was wishful thinking.

Today's Tribune carried an anti-Bush screed, printed here. This column contained the usual slippery numbers and loaded language. But that's not the point.

The point is the bio of the author at the end of the column. Here's what the Tribune says: "Robert S. McIntyre is director of Citizens for Tax Justice, 1311 L Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20005; Web site: www.ctj.org. This article originally appeared in the American Prospect." Yawn. No information about funding. Hmmm...who are these guys?

Well, when I looked I couldn't figure out who funded them, pharmaceutical companies or otherwise. I wonder why the Tribune wasn't as helpful identifying the funding sources of Citizens for Tax Justice as it was for identifying the funding sources for the Galen Institute. Was it because Citizens for Tax Justice is clearly a left wing group advocating 'tax the rich, give to the poor' policies? So, they get political cover from our paper but Galen doesn't?

As for the American Prospect, don't you wonder why the Tribune never tells us that they are an "authoritative magazine of liberal ideas, committed to...effective liberal politics." Don't you think it might help to evaluate the credibility of Mr. McIntyre's opinions to know that they were originally printed by an organization who believes that contemporary conservatives want to advance their agenda by "stealth, fear-mongering, and a massive propaganda apparatus." It was originally printed by a group who claims it is their "mission to expose that agenda and the lies that support it." In other words, these are not Joe Lieberman Democrats, they're Deaniacs (at best).

And yet our little small town daily prints their tirades as though their just plain 'ol folk like us. Well, thank god, they don't get any money from the drug companies. Lord knows those bastards have never contributed a thing to our society.