The Big Lie

The biggest lies in The State are casually asserted as statements of fact in a run-up to some other opinion that they have to offer. Read their laughably implausible explanation for Superintendent Dennis McMahon's firing from Lexington School District 5:

Dr. McMahon may have too often told some board members and District 5 residents what they didn’t want to hear — that their district was growing, and changing, and the best way to deal with that was to build new schools and launch new initiatives to help all students. It seemed as though Dr. McMahon represented the change that many in the community neither sought nor wished to accept.

The truth is that Dennis McMahon was an openly partisan Democrat who used public office to advance the agenda of his political masters while only intermittently focusing on education. His departure is a victory for open government, accountable to all. But you'll never learn the truth about McMahon's ethically dodgy—if not outright illegal—practices by reading The State.

No One Here but us Democrats

The State often pretends to be something more than a scribble sheet for Big Government Democrats at war with normal South Carolinians, but sometimes their true colors show. And by "sometimes," I mean "every day of the week."

Today, some partisan Democrat flaps his gums about how Sen. Lindsey Graham would make an excellent Supreme Court justice. To The State this is front-page news. Newsflash to the chief Democrats at The State: We have a Republican President who is not accustomed to taking orders from his chief critic. We also have a Senator in Lindsey Graham who, to his credit, has publicly denied interest in the position. So where's the story?

The State goes on to write a Democrat wish-list of top RINO Senators they'd like to see appointed to the bench. How is this newsworthy? (By contrast, here's an example of a real news outlet prints up the short list of actual contenders for the seat.)

Maybe the real story is the consistent journalistic malpractice visited daily upon the long suffering citizens of South Carolina.

Laugh so you don't cry

Here's the story. In 1999, the paragon of efficiency that is the State Department of Education took over the truly lowly, wayward, dysfunctional Allendale County School District. Then, they poured $12 million of South Carolina taxpayer money ("you weren't planning on using that, were you?") into the troubled county's government education system. Now, in 2004, the state is giving Allendale back its schools.

As an SC taxpayer, you might be wondering: How are those schools doing? Are the kids that were struggling 5 years ago now better off?

Well, according to the State Department of Education:

In 2004, after the 5 year, $11.8 million state take over of the schools...

* 9 out of 10 Allendale public school students are not proficient in math
* 7 out of 8 Allendale public students are not proficient in English

And the response from The State? Hooray!

Always Wrong. About Everything.

Brad Warthen has a special talent. Have you ever been to the circus and seen the act where they fit about 25 clowns into a sub-economy size car? Well, the editor of The Clowncar The State, Brad Warthen, can fit a greater number of lies, errors, distortions and propaganda nuggets into a single opinion piece than any other human being alive. The man is truly one-of-a-kind and a freak of nature. His skill is singular and unmatched. I bow low before his awesome powers.

Just for an example, here's an opinion piece in which he derides people for daring to believe that Republicans should vote in Republican primaries and Democrats in Democratic primaries. I mean, what a ludicrous idea! Why shouldn't Republicans vote in Democratic primaries and vice-versa? What's going on here?

Warthen's tap-dancing on this issue would make Bojangles cry.

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Today, The State puts its relentless abuse of taxpayers front page, center, above the fold. The story presents the novel development that over 1/3 of USC's incoming freshman are from out of state. The State presents this as an accomplishment. So how are they doing it?

During the last five years, the university has aggressively recruited talent from other states, selling an improved academic reputation and enticing high achievers with programs like the McNair scholarship, which pays tuition, fees and board.

Usually, The State uses its analysis in order to incorporate their opinion as part of the news. This is plain deceit; at The State it's standard operating procedure. But there is a legitimate use for news analysis—to search after the implication of the facts for the public interest.

In this case, the question is obvious: How much SC taxpayer money is being used to subsidize out-of-state kids? How many waiters', nurses', and truckdrivers' tax dollars are going to pay for upper middle class kids from New York and California so they can attend frat parties and 5 points bars?

Answers, alas, are not forthcoming from The State.

What's this? A Book Report?

Nina Brook couldn't be bothered to write her own column this week so instead she rehashed a week long series from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. In typical State fashion, the results are inaccurate, biased, and uninformative.

Unable to come up with an actual opinion for her opinion piece, Brook instead harps on the fact that Milwaukee is a northern city while South Carolina is a rural state. It's insights like this that make me grateful for the awesome analytical powers displayed on the Opinion page.

Brook is either a liar or an idiot. I, for one, think it must be the former. Surely she knows that if parents choose schools, kids will get a better deal than if kids are forced into failing institutions.

Relevant, Riveting, Irreplaceable

You have to give The State credit. Not only do they diligently comb the wire reports for the best stories written by other writers, they also fill their publication with news that is useful, even vital, for everyday South Carolinians.

Now with All the Calming Power of a Horse Tranquilizer

Not only is The State deceitful in news reporting, authoritarian in its editorial stances, and unconcerned in distinguishing between the two—it's also a crashing bore. The worst of the worst offenses to the reader's intellect has to be when Warthen & Co. let legislators who have nothing to say use the Opinion page to prance and strut.

Check out this recent atrocity from the pen of "puddin'head" Joan Brady (R-Richland). It is written in the exact same tone and contains precisely as much insight as a "How I Spent my Summer Vacation" essay authored by a second grader who is having trouble mastering her literacy skills.

Still, I have little doubt that, with patience, tenacity, and hard work, Ms. Brady will be able to catch up to her classmates.

Shameless

She might not be the smartest, most eloquent, profound or interesting writer, but you have to give Cindi Ross Scoppe credit: When it comes to being crafty, underhanded, and despicable, ain't no one that can do it better.

Today's Scoppe trainwreck of an article is a doozy. Scoppe employs her faux reportorial style in order to fabricate rumors from thin air, disguising what is no more than idle speculation on her part in an effort to undermine education reform. Opinion writers are supposed to write pieces that intend to persuade. They make a deal with the reader: If you keep an open mind, I'll give you an argument intended to win you over to my clearly stated point of view.

Cindi Scoppe has no use for such candor. She hides her real opinion (opposed to parental options in education and equal chances for children) underneath her second-rate "reportage."

Scoppe's hypothesis is that support for Put Parents in Charge cost Rep. Jim Harrison his chance to be Speaker of the House.

Scoppe starts off with a breathtaking bit of arrogance. In response to an earlier Harrison op-ed, Scoppe casually alleges that "education and tax policy are pretty far ouside of Mr. Harrison's area of expertise." Excuse me? In the United States, Ms. Scoppe, with its system of open debate and popular representation, elected officials are allowed to talk about a state's lackluster education system even if it's not their committee assignment. Then, stooping to truly sleazy levels, Scoppe hints at the rank innuendo that Harrison might not have written his own piece since "the tone also seemed out of character for the low-key, well-liked and generally non-confrontational Mr. Harrison."

Later on in the article, Scoppe spins out a bizarre theory of how the race for speaker went down. In essence, she takes the account of Rep. Joe Neal at face value. Neal, a man who is neither humble nor terribly insightful, developed the theory that Rep. Bobby Harrell prevailed over Jim Harrison due to the the support of . . . Joe Neal. And Joe Neal ain't voting for nobody for speaker who supports a better education for our children—end of story.

Scoppe goes on to imply that Bobby Harrell didn't support school choice when, in fact, a version of school choice would not have made it to the House floor (where it was scuttled) if it hadn't made it through Rep. Harrell's committee. So Scoppe is prevaricating, dissembling, misrepresenting, faking, fabricating, fibbing, falsifying—what's the word I'm looking for?—lying again.

Since she's a sly one, Scoppe is knows how to lie for effect. Ultimately, Scoppe's aim is to sabotage any prospect for education reform by perpetuating the myth that it's politically costly. So even if her argument is patently unconvincing to most, if it can sway even a couple of legislators that supporting equal opportunities for excellent education requires political risk, it can retard the school choice movement in South Carolina. Even though South Carolina's education system remains the worst in the country, that's fine by Scoppe. After all, it's only the children who are suffering.

Only semi-literate but fully insane

Usually I beat up on The State for its misleading and biased political coverage while occasionally going after its ceaseless anti-freedom editorializing. But let it never be said that The State can't screw up in other areas, too. Take entertainment reporting, for instance.

Check out Otis Taylor's incoherent lament on the Michael Jackson verdict. I can't tell if Taylor was on drugs when he wrote this or if he's just out of his mind.

Will it Ever Stop?

It's no secret that The State's editorial page is the weakest part of America's Worst Newspaper. But some days are worse than others. Sunday was so dark that you wondered if the sun would ever shine again.

Here's the latest anonymously published, Brad Warthen-authored atrocity against reason, evidence, decency, liberty and the English language.

In this article, Brad Warthen purports to explain why the recent passage of the primary enforcement, $25 fine for not wearing your seatbelt is a victory for South Carolina roads and its "political culture."

Unfortunately, Warthen gets it precisely wrong.

First, of all, Warthen cites studies that mandatory safety belt law might save 50 to 80 lives a year, thus making our highways safer. But that's not true. Warthen equates less highway deaths to safer highways. What he doesn't realize is that people who don't wear seatbelts only endanger themselves. (Although, in rare cases—such as being trapped in a flipped vehicle—not wearing a seatbelt can save your life.) So it really isn't making the highway any safer for the population at large; it's just taking a free choice away from an adult. This keeps with Warthen's pattern of favoring less choices for citizens, more power for the state. Believing he knows what's best for me, Brad Warthen wants to be my mom. (Shudder.)

This brings us to the second point. Warthen sees this as a distinct victory for some sort of new political culture that's not "dragged around by the nose by...the political fringes." Not to put too fine a point on it, but Warthen's a condescending drip! Everyone who agrees with Brad Warthen is in "the sensible center." Everyone who dissents is an extremist who should hush up. Warthen has no concept of debate in a free society. He thinks that getting to his conclusion should be the goal of the legislature and that this "moves our state forward." Note to Brad: deciding which way is "forward" is not up to you.

There's so much more that's wrong with this editorial. For instance, the claim that this will make the highways safer neglects the fact that highway troopers who would have been catching reckless drivers might now be diverted by catching those who are merely unbuckled. And then there's Warthen's insatiable appetite for additional restrictions, including mandatory motor cycle helmet laws and tighter DUI laws. Brad Warthen will not rest until citizens don't have a single choice left more consequential than how to tie their shoes.

After all, it's Warthen's world, we just live in it.

Jerk

Vulgar, Juvenile, Foolish

Usually, this blog focuses on the bias and errors in South Carolina's largest newspaper. But is it possible that The State is also a pornographer?

In a story about the "edgy" elements of this year's Spoleto Festival, The State does its level best to alternate between appearing truly taken aback by the indecency of the sexually graphic material and sophisticated enough to appreciate its "challenging" content.

Here's the truth of the matter. There are some performers at Spoleto who think they can get cheap notoriety by being "subversive" or "transgressive" or something. They're like the elementary school student who learns a dirty word or finds a girlie mag and knows it's the key to gaining popularity amongst his fellows. So these "artists" pretend that what they're doing isn't just for shock; it's for the art. Right.

And then the fools at The State "report the controversy." Now, freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. The State can report whatever it wants. But why must they insist on being such dupes? And why do they decide to serve as free advertising for the talentless filthmongers? Among its countless other vices, The State is precipitating the degradation and coarsening of our culture.

Thanks a lot, Warthen.

What's this? Liberal Bias? I am Shocked, *Shocked*!

Here's more proof that The State is a liberal rag and that is unsuitable even for its one alleged use—as a substitute for Charmin.

When John Graham Altman made a couple of ill-thought out, insensitive, wrong remarks on the subject of domestic violence, it made front page news in America's Worst Newspaper.

But when Governor Sanford actually goes ahead and signs a bill mandating increased jail time for domestic abusers, that story gets buried.

So what's more important, a few comments or getting a law passed? To Brad Warthen, words are more important than deeds. What a hypocrite.

"Don't Cut Taxes" pleads the State

America's Worst Newspaper, feeling triumphant after seeing another legislative session in which little was done to help South Carolinians, attacks yet another good idea.

Governor Sanford has long thought that the state government shouldn't grow faster than the economy. After all, if the government relies on money it taxes from its citizens, why should its cut grow faster than our paychecks? Furthermore, so much of the money goes to the well heeled and well connected that it's obvious that the state lawmakers simply can't be trusted not to spend every dime they get—and then some.

Here's the problem. No legislator wants to be the one who doesn't bring home the goodies when all the other lawmakers are delivering taxpayer-funded goodies to their constituents. After all, who doesn't want to be the hero who brought another bike path or children's museum? Unfortunately, all that wasteful spending adds up, and taxpayers are left with the bill.

So Governor Sanford had an idea. Since we all have the same goal—a budget that's in balance and leaves more money for SC families—why don't we create a rule that ensures we meet that goal? Why don't we put a ceiling on spending so that we can soon reap the reward of tax reduction?

The State doesn't like it. After all, since Brad Warthen is just exploding with ideas on how to spend taxpayer money. And since the SC Democratic Party is low on brains, Brad Warthen will just have to do.

Warthen complains that the rule against spending growth is "artificial." But so what? All government rules—including freedom of speech and the balanced budget amendment, to take two—are artificial. Governments themselves are pretty artificial. Of course, Warthen really means "undesirable."

What's really undesirable is the hellish vision of our state wherein citizen's are taxed up to their eyeballs to pay for Warthen's spendthrift fantasies. No thanks, Brad.

Postcards from the Edge

Donnie Myers is a dangerous man. He seems to have the habit of drunk driving and—despite his protests that it was an emergency that forced him onto the road—keeping a cold Budweiser open in his vehicle. (Article here, second from top.)

But according to State Editorial page editor Brad Warthen, it's not the drunk driving that makes Donnie dangerous. No, killing another person or leaving them injured or scarred for life is not what is to be feared from Donnie's reckless behavior.

According to Warthen, there's a bigger problem. You see, in addition to being a (alleged) drunk driver, Donnie Myers is the Lexington County solicitor. How does that change things? Well, if Myers is proven to behave in a careless manner with a wanton disrespect for human life, that might diminish faith in government. In Warthen's words:

People such as Solicitor Myers help the folks who despise government and all who serve in it win converts to their worldview.

So, to recap, the real danger of drunk driving by an elected official is not that he might maim or kill someone but it might encourage people to question state power, official privilege, and support increased citizen autonomy.

Ironically, Warthen editorial actually does a good job of muckraking—dredging up evidence that absolute power does corrupt absolutely—and making us wonder if forfeiting our rights to the state is really all it's cracked up to be. Of course Warthen contends it's just a few bad apples. But the question lingers: does vesting too much authority in a few hands lead to corrupt and even dangerous behavior?

A final question for Mr. Warthen, who gravely warns against "pouring gasoline on [the] libertarian fire:" Isn't endangering the lives of innocent South Carolinians worse than undermining a worshipful attitude towards government?

You have Got to be Kidding me

Today, The State endorses the famously profligate and power-hungry Bobby Harrell for Speaker of the House.

Next up: Al Sharpton publicizes his pick for Grand Wizard of Ku Klux Klan.