It is not the job of reporters to just report what partisans to debates say about events. The vast majority of readers do not have the time and background to assess competing claims. When one party says something that is not true, the news is that this person is lying, not their lie. Therefore when the Post told readers that Michael Morris, the chief executive of American Electric Power said that cap and dividend rules "would take money from 'mom in the Midwest and dividend it to Paris Hilton,'" it was not engaged in serious reporting. The bills being considered would tax carbon emissions and dividend them to low and moderate income families so that they are largely protected from price increases. Unless Paris Hilton loses her inherited wealth, she would not be a recipient of this money. The Post should have reported that the chief executive of American Electric Power felt the need to make things up to advance his case against restricting greenhouse gas emissions. Most readers of this article probably don't realize this fact.
--Dean Baker