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Location: Nashville, Tennessee, United States

6/20/2002

Bias by the Numbers
Today's Tennessean says the number of anti-income tax protestors has fallen sharply compared to last month. Don't believe it - the paper has fabricated numbers to make its case.

Today's Tennessean story by Christian Bottorff and Edith Wright claims: "Last month, as many as 800 anti-tax demonstrators showed up for rallies in front of the Capitol. Yesterday, the anti-tax crowd numbered about 130 at the peak."

But last month the paper downplayed the number of tax protestors, reporting on May 23 that there were about 300 protestors.

300 is not 800.

The headline on today's story, Pro-tax crowd gains in number, gives away the paper's bias: the paper intended to make it appear support for the income tax is surging while opposition is falling. But its claim that yesterday's pro-income tax crowd of a few hundred people was larger than previous pro-income tax demonstrations is itself a lie. According to the Knoxville News-Sentinel, "more than 2,000 teachers" participated in a pro-tax reform rally May 1 at the state capital.