Flock the Misinformation! A Story of Deception and Redemption

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda - George W Bush

Have you ever known anyone to stick their foot so deep in their mouth that the sole of their shoe actually left an impression on their colon? I didn't think it was possible, but it happened recently right here in central Illinois. What follows is an accounting of this incredible incident.

The story begins with the 2014 city budget of Bloomington, Illinois, which included a proposal to help fund a new flamingo exhibit at the Miller Park Zoo. The exhibit - which is expected to increase zoo attendance by 5% - is also expected to pay for itself over a 3 year period. The up front cost to the city of Bloomington: $150,000.

Additionally, the city of Bloomington levied additional taxes on entertainment, and adopted a motor fuel tax, which they define on the city website as follows:

The Local Motor Fuel Tax was adopted by the city to tax motor fuel at four cent ($0.04) per gallon for the sale of motor fuel to raise revenue for the City's street resurfacing program.

Our story now turns to Cities 92.9, a local radio station with a documented history of spreading misinformation, and which seems to be fueled, at least in part, by a perpetual state of feigned outrage for anything government. In response to the tax increases, Cities - and more specifically morning host Ian Bayne - began a campaign called Flock the Tax Hike (an obvious double entendre), in which listeners were encouraged to place plastic pink flamingos in their yards as a form of protest.

Benjamin Yount

I didn't personally pay much attention to this silly campaign in the beginning, but that changed recently when Benjamin Yount, the self proclaimed Illinois watchdog, made a big deal over an email the station had received from Nora Dukowitz, who works as the Communications Director for the city of Bloomington. Nora's email rattled the watchdog so much, that he decided to read it on the air in its entirety. Before reading it, Benjamin asked his listeners to "find the tone. Tell me what you hear when I read this email". So, as Benjamin read Nora's email, I did exactly as he asked, and I listened for the tone. Here is that email in its entirety:

Cities 92.9,

In response to the Cities 92.9 Flock the Taxes Campaign, I would like to address the misleading and incorrect information regarding the city of Bloomington and Miller Park Zoo.

First, your campaign implies that the recently passed local motor fuel tax will fund Miller Park's flamingo exhibit. In fact, funds generated from the motor fuel tax are earmarked for road repairs and improvements. Your campaign also suggests that funds produced by the amusement tax are devoted solely to the zoo's flamingo exhibit. Funds from the amusement tax are one income stream of many that funnel into the city's general fund. The general fund pays for a wide variety of items including police and fire protection, planning and economic development, and general administration of the cities activities, among other things. Of the city's 91.8 million dollar general fund budget, approximately $150,000 or .16% is budgeted for Miller Park's flamingo exhibit.

In the spirit of true public private partnership, the Miller Park Zoological Society is also contributing $100,000 of its own funds towards the exhibit. The flamingos themselves are funded by the Ewing Zoo Foundation. This separate private foundation has partnered with Miller Park Zoo since 1967 to fund the acquisition and shipping costs of new animals for the zoo.

This exhibit is the initial project outlined in Miller park's zoo master plan adopted in 2012 and strategically phased to improve both the physical aspect of the zoo and its financial sustainability. The flamingo exhibit is expected to  increase zoo attendance by 5% or 6,000 guests and  generate interest from the community for an additional private philanthropic support. The improvements at the zoo make it more sustainable and are anticipated to lower the subsidy received by the zoo from the city of Bloomington.
Following the completion of the flamingo exhibit the zoo will begin work on a 700,000 dollar entrance improvement project funded entirely through the Illinois Public Museum Capital Grant program . The improvements include a new De Brazza's monkey exhibit, renovations to the zoo's entrance, and an additional parking lot to serve all of Miller Park.

In light of these facts, I hope you will immediately correct the misleading and incorrect information on your Flock the Taxes Campaign.

What I heard as far as tone goes was a polite, mild mannered, fact filled request for Cities 92.9 to stop spreading misinformation about the new taxes and their relationship - or lack thereof - to the upcoming flamingo exhibit at the Miller Park Zoo. I had been exposed to misinformation from Cities 92.9 before, so the accusation that they were now misinforming listeners certainly didn't seem out of line. Of course, Benjamin wasn't having any of it:

Benjamin Yount: Nora, thank you for the email. You are wrong, and I don't care if you think we are misleading people. We are telling people the truth .Gas taxes are going up 4 cents a gallon.  The city has raised taxes on entertainment and utilities among other things. The city has decided that its priority is $150,000 for flamingos. All of those things are correct. Because it hurts your feelings or doesn't carry the company line? That's a you problem, not a me problem.  By the way Nora, I don't see how someone whose getting a 100 grand from the city, maybe we'll do this, maybe we'll fire you and then we can pay for the flamingos. How about that? So, between your salary of $100,000 and the flamingo money of $150,000, what's the total percentage there Nora? The tone of this email, and correct me if I'm wrong - the cities 92.9 text line 309 807 1600 - is essentially, stop being mean to us. Just stop being mean! Just no! (lots of huffing and puffing and pouting sounds) No come on, don't be mean, people won't like the zoo! And big government is good. Look, the state is giving us $700,000 for monkeys, why are you jumping on us for the flamingos! Nora, it's the same damn thing.

So, according to this story's protagonist, Cities 92.9 has not misled anybody about the new taxes, and anybody who accuses them of doing so is acting like a petulant second grader. For those of you who are familiar with literary elements, such as foreshadowing, then you already know where this story is leading. But before we get to that a-ha moment, sit back and watch how a fisherman reels in a really big fish:

Benjamin Yount:   We've gotten to the point where you can't even object. People send me texts and emails and they say Ben, there are people at city hall who are really mad about this flamingo thing, to which I say, grow up. You're mad about little plastic birds?

Really Benjamin, do you seriously believe that there are people at city hall who are angry because Cities 92.9 is encouraging listeners to place plastic pink flamingos in their yards? Good grief. After hearing this, I think I rolled my eyes so far back into my head that I swear I saw grey matter. Naturally, I had to respond with the following text message to Benjamin:

Arnold Facepalmer: I doubt anybody at city hall is angry about the flamingos. If anything, they're angry about the misinformation they represent.

Benjamin then read my text on the air, and in response, made the following statement:

Benjamin Yount: This is the line you're going to hear about our flock the tax hike promotion. We say simply 3 things: gas prices are going up on August 1st because of the gasoline tax, the budget includes taxes on entertainment, which includes things like bowling and movies and the city of Bloomington is going to spend more than a hundred thousand dollars on flamingos. We say those three things. We do not say the city is raising gas taxes to pay for flamingos. That's not correct. We simply say the reason you are paying more in taxes for everything is because this is a city that cannot live within its means. Here is a perfect example, a perfect visualization of the wants versus needs mentality at city hall and it's the pink flamingo. But because we don't carry the party line, city hall is taken to saying we are putting out misinformation. You get it. I get it. They can't argue that they are in any way responsible with our money, so they  have to argue the tiny well, technically you're not correct. Technically we are correct, and in the big picture we are correct.

So, according to Benjamin Yount, Cities 92.9 is not saying that the city is raising gas taxes to pay for flamingos, because of course, that would be wrong. So, maybe Benjamin would like to explain the following promotional poster located on the Cities 92.9 website:

Ouch! That's going to leave a mark. I don't believe there's any other way to interpret the statement "All to fund Miller Park Zoo's Flamingo Exhibit" than that it means the taxes were raised specifically to fund the flamingo exhibit, just as Nora Dukowitz pointed out in her letter.

And in the spirit of weapons grade irony, Benjamin followed up reading Nora's letter with this statement:

Benjamin Yount: If this community can have a discussion about flamingos, an honest discussion about flamingos, then perhaps someone could defend the zoo.

I don't think the word honest means what Benjamin thinks it means.

This may seem like the end of this story, but a good story isn't complete without an introspective moral that audiences can take away with them to improve their lives. The moral to this particular story is twofold. First, honesty is always the best policy, and by honesty, I mean real honesty, not phony appeals for honesty from people who make their living working for a dishonest enterprise. And second, if you ever do decide to double down on your misrepresentations, check that you aren't contradicted by your own promotional materials first.

And you know, this story doesn't have to end with Cities 92.9 looking bad. Yes, they have lied. And yes, they've lied many, many times. But they can still save face and salvage some of their reputation and integrity by doing two things; First, they can admit that Nora Dukowitz was correct when she called their campaign misleading. And second, offer a heartfelt apology to people like Nora Dukowitz and any other city hall employees they've shamelessly tried to bully. I know, admitting you're wrong and apologizing is not always an easy thing to do, but it is a necessary thing to do if you value the respect of others.

If you do decide to do the right thing Benjamin, I'd recommend having that foot removed first.

Update - July 26, 2014

I  checked the Cities 92.9 website today to see if it was still carrying the misleading promotional poster I posted above, and to my surprise, I found that it had been removed and replaced with this one:

Notice the change in wording. It is obvious that someone at Cities 92.9 now recognizes that Nora Dukowitz was correct when she accused the station of spreading misinformation. It's a shame that it took this write up to raise that awareness.

Now, how about that apology?

Update - August 24, 2014

I couldn't resist checking back again with Cities 92.9 to see how they might be advertising their Flock the Taxes promotion. What I found was that their poster had once again been changed, apparently this time to include one of their major advertisers, and entice people to check their facenbook page. What's funny about this poster is the glaring misspelling. Yeah, we all misspell things from time to time, but Cities is in the business of putting everybody else under a microscope, but can't be bothered to do something as simple as check the spelling on a promotional poster.

Here's the poster, see if you can spot the error:

If you didn't spot the error, it will become more evident if you try looking on the internet for the Cities 92.9 Facenbook page.