Whopper of the Week: Something Ugly Is Happening…

Qualifying for a mega-whopper designation this week is Scott Herhold’s October 16th column titled, “Scare Tactics Adopted in Mayoral Race.” In this blatant effort to support mayoral candidate Sam Liccardo, Herhold employs distortion like an experienced practitioner.

First, Herhold criticizes mailers that graphically link San Jose’s increasing crime rates to a shrinking police force by essentially arguing that you can’t show a linear correlation between the number of cops on the street and every single change in crime rates for every type of offense for every 6 month period. That standard is absurd. The overwhelming reality about crime in San Jose is that substantial increases in crime took place in numerous categories of offenses precisely when the number of officers on the police force significantly declined. Statistics about a specific offense over one short period only indicate minor variations from a major, indisputable trend.

As far as the specific mailer is concerned, it is completely appropriate to tell voters that unacceptably low response times for attempted rape and gang disturbances coupled with declines in clearance rates place them at a greater risk of violence. If the response times and clearance rates were improving, Herhold would undoubtedly be crediting his political idol for making the city safer.

Next, Herhold equates blaming Liccardo for the city’s crime rate to blaming Obama for the Ebola crisis. The comparison is somewhere between laughable and contemptible. Sam Liccardo deliberately promoted a policy to impose unconstitutional restrictions on city pension policies while scapegoating the police as the cause of the city’s fiscal difficulties. That policy failed – abjectly. Liccardo’s proposition was rejected by the court; police have left in droves; and crime is escalating – threatening the security of countless neighborhoods. One would be hard pressed to recall another example in which an elected official was so definitively responsible for a policy fiasco; only Governor Davis’s embrace of utility deregulation comes to mind.

Third, Herhold distorts the record by claiming the crime issue is “really about money.” Somehow, he fails to recall that both candidates will continue the retirement reform savings from SRBR bonuses and changes in retirement health benefits and that the city’s stable 5 year fiscal projections include no revenue from a successful appeal of the vested rights issue. Moreover, just last June, both candidates endorsed placing some form of ¼ cent sales tax increase on the ballot. The issue isn’t “really about money.” It’s really about one candidate being committed to acknowledging and fixing the crime problem (Cortese) and the other candidate’s unwillingness to admit failure and change course.

Finally, one has to ask where was Herhold’s deep concern about scare tactics when Chuck Reed was identifying pensions as the sole source of service cuts (a claim so misleading a judge tossed it out of a ballot argument), when city leaders made phony threats of bankruptcy, and when the ignominious $650 million pension cost fabrication was exposed.

To restate the first sentence of Herhold’s column, “Something ugly is happening in American politics.” It is the tendency of journalists to abandon any semblance of fairness or respect for the truth in order to advance their political preferences. If Herhold seeks an example of this behavior in San Jose, perhaps he should look in the mirror.

Total Views: 398 ,


Do you have a news tip you would like to share? Would you like to contribute to The Left Hook? Email us at LeftHookBlog@gmail.com

No Comments

Leave a Comment

Follow

Get every new post on this blog delivered to your Inbox.

Join other followers: