EXCLUSIVE: They can publish a Mohammed cartoon, but not these charts

Free speech, sensitivity clash in media outlets – Spokesman.com – Jan. 15, 2015.

The Spokesman-Review published an image of Mohammed (also known as Muhammad) that offends many, with editor Gary Graham saying

“The cover illustration itself is a significant news development and I believe we have an obligation to our readers to let them see it for themselves and form their own opinions about it.”

The “Mohammed” charts of Spokane: the charts that must not be seen!

The Spokesman-Review believes it is not important for readers to form their own opinions about the airport and Public Facilities District usage trends.

Click on any chart for the full size version. See previous posts on this blog for additional information, sources, other confirmations of the data, and the raw data

Propaganda

“In this sense, propaganda serves as a corollary to censorship, in which the same purpose is achieved, not by filling people’s heads with false information, but by preventing people from knowing true information. What sets propaganda apart from other forms of advocacy is the willingness of the propagandist to change people’s understanding through deception and confusion, rather than persuasion and understanding.” SourceWatch.

The Spokesman-Review has demonstrated its inability to report on important local issues by “preventing people from knowing true information” – the definition of a propaganda outlet.

Local media completely missed – and in fact, enabled – Rachel Dolezal’s long term deceptions – a story better reported in the national and UK press than local Spokane media which has reached a new low since then. Under the circumstances, Spokane and Rachel Dolezal were a match made in, well, the scam and fraud capitol of America. Update Sep 2015: The nonsense just goes on and on.

What has ailed Spokane for the long term is now quite apparent.

There is no longer much purpose for this blog.  The problems are apparent: lies, the liars that tell them (see this blog for a long list of tall tales, lies and local myths and exaggerations), deception, fraud, and the propaganda industry that enables this culture (and the latest set of lies).  No one gives a shit that everyone here lies all the time. Indeed, bull shit is the area’s leading economic output.

That is the end of the story. Our questions have been answered.

From “The X Report”, good bye.

Continue on to re-read our final words reprinted from an earlier post.

Telling Outright Lies is the Local Pastime

A selection of prominent lies and the liars who tell them is listed here.

The basic culture of Spokane seems to be based on lies and deceit, causing the area to repeatedly earn a designation as the Scam and Fraud Capitol of America.

The Problem is Ignorance 

The long term trend in the Spokane area economy is poor – its been treading water for 15 years.

In spite of much media PR puffery, people have a sense that things are bad. And the data confirm it is a bad situation.

Much of the local media act as cheerleaders, engage in “errors of omission” (a method of telling a lie which fits into the local culture), and hide poor performance of elected and non-elected leaders. Failed leaders are not held accountable – instead, long term declining attendance at Spokane Public Facilities District is defended and actively covered up by the local newspaper. A decline in airport usage is called “continued growth” – and not one person in Spokane’s media bats an eye at the egregious lie.  Visit Spokane lies and claims it is nearly always clear and sunny in Spokane. A local promoter misquotes a tech industry publication to falsely claim Spokane is a high tech hot spot (when the publication actually said Spokane is NOT a high tech hot spot).

To this day, the Spokesman-Review is pained to present data in easy to understand charts, even when the State provides the charts for free. For example, here is the September 2014 employment chart and here is how they babbled on about this in words:

The chart cannot be spun – Spokane has recovered about half of the jobs lost in the economic downturn while the State and the nation have recovered more than 100%. By hiding this from readers and viewers, Spokane’s local media censors the news through “lying by omission”.  Except for The Inlander, perhaps. (Note – former SR staffer Ryan Pitts left the SR to work on CensusReporter, a tool to make it easy for reporters to obtain Census data in easy to read charts. Tools exist. It’s not hard to illustrate stores with charts. But its hard to spin actual data.)

The outright lies and exaggerations are non-stop – hence, Spokane remains the scam and fraud capitol of America – but the zero credibility local media itself is complicit in re-telling and defending the lies (follow the links on this blog to see specific examples of the local media’s participation).

When land speculation is one of the top 3 industry clusters and the media is conflicted with land ownership and development,  reporting is warped.

The public has been intentionally kept in the dark as to the true state of Spokane – but many have seen these issues for a long time. Out of town visitors arrive and often the first thing they say is “Spokane looks like a run down dump” (check out the very old crumbling buildings with peeling paint to weeds growing out of the streets and sidewalks in August and you can see why).

This blog shed a light on the truth that has been hidden from the public – by showing the actual data, in simple to read charts, that directly contradict the local memes and the local liars. Data is the enemy of the propagandists.

The X Report

This site will remain on line as “The X Report“, just as “The Fancher Report” (summary here) lives on today, or how local corruption is documented in “Breaking Blue” or at Camus Magazine and other web sites.  It is no longer safe to publish skeptical inquiry on the Internet.

Before I moved to Spokane, an old friend who grew up here said, “X, Spokane is just a small town. Only bigger.”

Hoopfest Ironman