{"id":9379,"date":"2013-03-29T13:01:30","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T20:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9379"},"modified":"2013-03-29T14:09:40","modified_gmt":"2013-03-29T21:09:40","slug":"fox-news-hypes-free-state-study-by-koch-brothers-think-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9379","title":{"rendered":"Fox News Hypes ‘Free State’ Study By Koch Brothers Think Tank"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you see a headline on Fox News that says “Americans Are Migrating to More Free Republican States,”<\/em> it’s a safe bet that it emanates from an untrustworthy, right-wing source. That is precisely the case with the study that Fox is heavily promoting that ranks the “liberty”<\/em> of the various American states and concludes that the highest ranking “red”<\/em> states are more popular than those of the socialist-leaning “blue”<\/em> variety.<\/p>\n

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This suspiciously partisan study was produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. What Fox does not inform their audience is that the Mercatus Center is a Koch Brothers-funded entity that is notorious for its overtly biased research that promotes conservative, libertarian principles. Source Watch<\/a> notes that…<\/p>\n

“The Mercatus Center was founded and is funded by the Koch Family Foundations. According to financial records, the Koch family has contributed more than thirty million dollars to George Mason, much of which has gone to the Mercatus Center.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The founder of the Mercatus Center is the same Koch Industries executive who later founded both of the Koch-backed Tea Party groups, FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. All of these entities were created to advance the financial and political interests of the Koch brothers. The notion that this think tank would command any credibility is absurd, but what’s worse is that Fox endorses them without disclosing who they really are.<\/p>\n

The study itself draws conclusions that are skewed sharply toward libertarian values. The methods<\/a> they use to rank the “liberty”<\/em> of each state illustrate how biased they are. The highest weighted criterion to be considered “more free”<\/em> is “Tax Burden”<\/em> at 28.6%. Nothing else even comes close. You could be a political prisoner who is denied free speech and prohibited from voting, but if your taxes are low this study would consider you free.<\/p>\n

The next highest weighted criterion is “Freedom from Tort Abuse”<\/em> (11.5%), which victims of medical malpractice or corporate negligence might find curious. They would probably regard the freedom to seek compensation for serious injury or death a fairly important liberty. In fact, the freedom from tort abuse might better be described as the freedom from responsibility for catastrophic harm. This divergence demonstrates how one person’s freedom is another’s tyranny. The rest of the methodology is laughable and paints a disturbing picture of what Mercatus regards as the pillars of liberty. For instance: <\/p>\n