With taxes on the minds of most Americans, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) member papers are doing what they do best: providing an antidote to the myths that the mainstream media, local television news and politicians perpetuate about tax policy.
An AAN-commissioned 3,000-word piece by David Cay Johnston on tax myths and the politics behind them will appear this week in 40 alternative newsweeklies across the country.
“Through this unique partnership with AAN, member papers in communities large and small are able to get this important story in front of readers,” AAN Board of Directors President and Willamette Week Editor Mark Zusman says. “This is a wonderful piece of journalism and a towering example of the ability of alt-weeklies to speak truth to power about an exceedingly important subject.”
Johnston is perhaps best known as the longtime tax reporter for The New York Times, where he won a Pultizer in 2001 (he left the paper in 2008). He is also the author of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill) and Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich — and Cheat Everybody Else.
LISTEN: Detroit’s WDET talks with David Cay Johnton about the article.
Johnston’s piece is broken down into nine sections that bust common myths about taxes in America. From “Poor Americans do pay taxes” to “Other countries do it better,” he pokes holes in supply-side economics and the politicians who have fostered its growth over the past few decades.
Papers that ran this story include:
Arkansas Times
Artvoice (Buffalo)
Athens News
Baltimore City Paper
Chico News & Review
Cincinnati CityBeat
City Newspaper (Rochester)
Colorado Springs Independent
East Bay Express
Eugene Weekly
Flagpole (Athens, GA)
Folio Weekly
Fort Worth Weekly
Illinois Times
Jackson Free Press
Las Vegas CityLife
LEO Weekly
Metro Times (Detroit)
Metroland (Albany)
Monterey County Weekly
Nashville Scene
New York Press
North Bay Bohemian
North Coast Journal
Orlando Weekly
The Other Paper (Columbus, OH)
Sacramento News & Review
Salt Lake City Weekly
San Diego CityBeat
San Francisco Bay Guardian
Santa Fe Reporter
The Source Weekly (Bend, OR)
Syracuse New Times
Tucson Weekly
Wausau City Pages
Willamette Week
