“Road-funding debate stalls,” proclaimed the Times-Dispatch headline over the article covering the transportation debate in the General Assembly yesterday. That was as fair and balanced as the story got. It was all down-hill from there.
After noting that the Democrats had successfully stalled Republicans’ $2.4 billion transportation plan, Michael Hardy and Jeff Schapiro weighed in with this third-paragraph “perspective”:
At the heart of the disagreement, now in its ninth month: the resistance of House Republicans to new taxes, which Democrat Kaine and a bipartisan coalition in the Senate say are the only reliable source of additional transportation funds.
Notice that Hardy and Schapiro did not frame the issue this way:
At the heart of the disagreement, now in its ninth month: resistance of House Democrats and their allies in the Senate to overhauling Virginia’s failed transportation system and land use practices, which a bipartisan coalition of environmentalists and fiscal conservatives says is needed before wasting any more money on it.
The article then quoted by name three Democratic delegates, two Republican senators and a Kaine administration spokesman in support of their side of the issue, before getting around to quoting a two delegates — starting in the 24th paragraph — in defense of their side.
And photos? You asked about photos? Pictured in the newspaper (not the Web version) were Frank Hall, Kristen Amundson, Russell Potts and John Chichester — all certified members of the Axis of Taxes. On the other side? Nobody.
