November 7, 2007 8:54AM 

# Media Bias around the Nation 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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Here’s the Salem, Oregon, *Statesman-Journal*’s [lead on an election story](http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071107/STATE/711070412/1042) today:

> Oregon’s working poor will have to wait a while longer to get health-care coverage for their children.
> 
> 
> Voters easily defeated Measure 50, a plan to raise tobacco taxes to provide universal health care for children after a record-shattering negative ad campaign financed by cigarette companies.

Gee, ya think this journalist supports the tax?

You have to read down to paragraph 11 to find out that it was a massive 85-cent-per-pack increase.

And you’d have to [switch to the *Oregonian*](http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1194420305233310.xml&coll=7) to find a comment from an anti-tax organizer:

> Opponents downplayed the amount of money they spent to defeat the measure, saying voters didn’t like sticking a tax in the constitution and weren’t convinced bureaucrats needed the money.
> 
> 
> “The primary reason is there’s not an appetite out there for more taxes,” said Russ Walker, Oregon director of the anti-tax group FreedomWorks.

##### Related Tags 

[Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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