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CNBC state rankings say a lot about the network
BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ
Tribune Columnist
This week we ponder the greatest mystery in the 110-year history of the Grand Can-
yon State.
No, not how does a noxious fraud like Kari Lake lead the Republican gubernatorial field in 2022, according to multiple polls. I’m talking about Arizona’s other great mystery.
Namely, if this state is such a wretched place to live – as proclaimed yet again recently by the folks at CNBC television – then why do so many people keep moving here? My hypothesis follows, but first we should delve into CNBC’s analysis, released last week.
As the network tells it, “We put the states through an unprecedented 88 metrics in ten categories of competitiveness,” all to crown America’s best states for business and 10 worst states in which to live.
On the positive side, Arizona ranked 34th for business. On the negative side, we’re dead last in states to call home.
CNBC correspondent Scott Cohn’s Arizona write-up started off with a super clever, “It’s a dry heat” reference before knocking the state for having “some of the worst air quality in the nation,” which stresses our “poor health care system, short on hospital beds and staff.”
In a nod at balance, Scotty touted Arizona’s “stunning natural beauty and topnotch cultural and recreational attractions.” However, “that comes at a stiff price in America’s worst state to live in.”
I contacted Scott to discuss his hometown, the hippie dippie central California enclave of Santa Cruz. Just FYI, in Santa Cruz the average monthly rent on a studio apartment doubled over the last year to $2,500, according to the website Zumper.
Santa Cruz’s violent crime rate is 31 percent higher than Arizona’s, according to the Best Places website, while the property crime rate is 12 percent higher.
Of course, all the maiming and stealing may be explained by Santa Cruz’s stratospheric cost of living – approximately double Arizona’s, according to Best Places.
Sadly, Scott did not get back to me before my deadline. I hope he’s okay, living in such a hellhole.
As far as the CNBC survey, I’m of two minds.
One, let’s hope the 100,000 people planning a move to Arizona this year read it and stay home. All that migration is driving up the cost of housing and goods, plus hurting everything from traffic to air quality to the wait time between holes on one of Arizona’s 500 golf courses.
Then there’s my other theory, which explains the mystery of Arizona being ranked so miserably, yet remaining so popular to new residents.
It’s simple: While CNBC’s “unprecedented 88 metrics” sound impressive, their made-up criteria have zero to do with why people choose a home.
Put simply, their analysis is all about the brain, crunching “empirical data,” while human beings choose homes with the heart.
When was the last time you asked someone, “Hey, what brought you to Arizona?” only to have them respond, “Well, I ranked my top choices on 88 metrics, like inclusiveness in state laws, including protections against discrimination of all kinds, as well as voting rights.”
People move to Arizona for exactly six reasons. A job. Family. The weather.
And also: the weather, the weather, the weather.
Cable networks can say what they want, but Arizona apparently has the essential qualities people seek in a home. Humans are fickle that way, falling in love with places for the oddest reasons.
It’s the same with TV channels. Maybe That’s why CNBC ranks 44th in the TV ratings, right behind Nick Jr, and with half the audience of The Game Show Network.
I guess it’s tricky to outdraw Gene Rayburn and reruns of “Match Game” – even though Gene’s been dead since 1999. Apparently, fake state rankings aren’t doing the trick.
More examples of agendas replacing facts
BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist
This column previously suggested that The New York Times could improve its accuracy by amending its front page slogan “All the news that’s fit to print.”
Now the so-called “newspaper of record” has again offered fresh evidence that it really features “All the news that fits its agenda.” It does so with a sympathetic profile of a curious figure who used to call Arizona home.
Former Queen Creek resident Ray Epps, who initially appeared among the “Top 20” of the FBI’s “most wanted” for the unrest at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and who was characterized as a “pre-planner” of the siege in the Times-produced video documentary about that day, now gets a dramatic “makeover” in a recent story written by reporter Alan Feuer.
The July 13 edition features a headline that spells out what that publication has just “discovered” about Epps’ non-prosecution: “‘It’s Just Been Hell:’ Life as the Victim of a Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory” presents readers with two value judgements in that one headline.
First, that Ray Epps is a “victim” and, second, anyone who questions his role or the events of that day is a believer in a “conspiracy theory.”
The sub-headline goes even further in this effort to persuade instead of inform.
It reads that “Ray Epps became the unwitting face of an attempt by Pro-Trump forces to promote the baseless idea that the FBI was behind the attack on the Capitol.”
What the Times is really feeding us is the following blather: Ray Epps is an entirely innocent man. This “gentle giant” was shocked to learn that his well-intentioned, but admittedly misguided trip from Arizona to Washington would be used by extremists so enthralled by Donald Trump that they would ignore the pure and noble motives of the FBI, an organization so committed to true justice that it would never dream of seeking to entrap American citizens in questionable activities.
That “translation” is only a slight exaggeration.
What is greatly exaggerated is the style of Alan Feuer’s reportage to reposition Ray Epps “on the side of the angels”—in other words, with the Times and its political allies.
The writer goes to great lengths to “reimagine” Epps, as “a man whose life has been ruined by a Jan. 6 conspiracy theory.” Also “reimagined” is the video of Epps on the evening of Jan. 5, when he shouted out to Trump supporters gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza. Here’s the way Alan Feuer recounts it: “During the event, he (Epps) was videotaped by a right-wing provocateur encouraging people to go inside the Capitol on Jan. 6 in what he described, even at the time, as a form of peaceful protest.”
It’s more than passing curious that Feuer describes the person recording the video as a “right wing provocateur,” but fails to detail the crowd’s reaction to Epps. Those gathered respond to his call that “Tomorrow we need to go into the Capitol—into the Capitol!” with shock. They respond, “What? No!” Then, they accuse Epps of being a provocateur himself. “Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed,” they shout…but the reporter doesn’t
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Share Your Thoughts: Send your letters on local issues to: pmaryniak@ timespublications.com
6208-0721 mention it.
Sadly, modern journalism has exchanged accuracy for advocacy. With increasing regularity, the goal of such coverage is to portray conservative policies, pursuits, and politicians as targets worthy of unremitting invective.
Of course, the Times isn’t alone in this effort.
Lester Holt, the anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” added his energy, advocacy, and alleged insight to the cause when he stated in 2021 that “fairness is overrated.”
More recently, the Pulitzer Prize Board refused to revoke the joint award it bestowed on The New York Times and the Washington Post in 2018 for articles concerning—as the Board states it—”Russian interference in the U.S. Election and its connections to the Trump campaign.”
Never mind the fact that in March 2019, the Mueller Report found no evidence that Trump colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 Presidential Election.
Facts…full reporting…fairness… who needs ‘em? Just a free society, filled with citizens who yearn to remain free.
