Scare Tactics
It’s a non-issue in Tennessee, but that hasn’t stopped the state’s capital-city newspaper from raising it anyway. The Tennessean reports that proposals to release some prison inmates early in order to save money and help balance the state budget are getting a “cool response” from state lawmakers.

Who is making the proposal?

The Tennessean, and nobody else, apparently, in a prime example of a newspaper manufacturing news on a slow news day.

Despite Tennessee's budget woes, most of which stem from an additional $258 million required for TennCare, state lawmakers interviewed by The Tennessean were largely opposed to making early release of inmates a budget tool. ''I'm willing to listen to their argument, but I'm not persuaded at this point that is what we need to do,'' said Sen. Joe Haynes, D-Goodlettsville.

Whose argument? The paper mentions no Tennessee lawmaker or state official who has proposed early release. It merely cites a New York Times report from last month that some states were “laying off prison guards, closing prisons or giving prisoners emergency early releases to reduce budget deficits,” including Iowa; Ohio, Illinois, Montana, Arkansas, Texas and Kentucky. But not Tennessee.

To understand why the non-story became front-page news in The Tennesssean, you have to understand the paper’s political agenda. The paper favors an income tax, and favors virtually unlimited government spending on healthcare. Because it is now clear that TennCare – not the state’s tax structure – is the prime cause of the state’s budgetary problems in recent years, the paper is seeking to refashion the budget story to be a story about something other than the giant financial sucking sound called TennCare. The scary specter of early release of violent felons – which no one except the Tennessean itself has raised – makes a convenient diversion.

But just remember - it isn't a real issue in Tennessee.