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Health & Fitness

Political Propaganda Disguised As Something Else

“Half a truth is often a great lie."  Benjamin Franklin

Political blogs can be fun and informative. When done well, they are colorful opinions written with a clever spin designed to inform, persuade and move the reader to take action. Whether you agree or disagree, laugh or learn from a blog, our opinion is that writing with a bias, does not give the author a license to play fast and loose with the facts.

Regardless of political leanings, most blogs that aim to inform the public are grounded in truth. When blogs are written with reckless disregard for the facts, opinions can mislead and misinform the public.  The decision to cherry-pick some facts and disregard others is a tactical decision for some blog authors, because it is the easiest way to support their agenda.

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An example of a recent misrepresentation of the truth is in a blog posting titled “Suspicious Non-Emergent Medical Transport Cost County Tax Payers”.  We will have another post in the near future that will address the many inaccuracies in the above referenced blog, but for now, we will highlight this statement; “For the first 7 months of 2013, Washington County recipients of this service made an average of 2,600 trips per month (2013 year to date total is 18,202) from an average of 231 unique users; according [to] the September 3rd meeting.  That’s 11 non-emergent medical transports per user per month!  I contacted the community Services Policy Analyst for WC and inquired about why 231 people are ALL having a non-emergent medical trip paid for by the tax payers EVERY THREE DAYS.” [emphasis added]

We found this claim hard to believe, so we contacted Washington County and were provided with a breakdown of the numbers and reasons for these non-emergency medical transportation trips for October 2013.  There were 2,235 trip legs; a trip leg is defined as a ONE-WAY trip.  There were 198 unique users in October.  If we use averages and divide the number of trips by the unique users, then by the number of days in the month, you will find that each person would be using the service about once every five or six days (factoring in a round trip), not every three days as the reader was led to believe in the above referenced blog post.  This may seem like a minor error, but when the obvious point of the blog post is make the reader “suspicious” of a government program designed to help the poorest in our county, one would hope that facts are presented clearly and precisely and not in a manner designed to mislead.

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An honest, credible blogger will quickly correct their mistake when confronted with facts. An arrogant blogger, often blinded by naiveté, will become indignant and stand behind those words, even when proven false.

We don't care for bloggers who are purportedly watching out and informing us when their real motivation is to promote political propaganda.  We are all entitled to our own opinions, but we are not entitled to our own facts.

It is because of this type of blogger that a few local citizens have come together to correct some misinformation that has been posted in blogs here on Patch.  In recognition of someone who inspires our mission, we call ourselves “The Dog Catchers.” 

We don’t pretend to post all the information on a subject, we only hope to post factual information that corrects misinformation posted here in the past.

Stay tuned ... 

 

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