MissouriNet Touts Show-Me Institute Study, Neglects Institute's Slant

A story posted by Steve Walsh to the MissouriNet website yesterday evening does a tremendous disservice to readers.  Walsh reports on a "study" by the Show-Me Institute that --surprise, surprise!-- shows educational tuition tax-credits (or vouchers) would supposedly benefit the state:

The Show-Me Institute, a St. Louis-based research and educational institute, has released a study on the fiscal effects of a tuition tax credit program in Missouri. The study finds such a program would benefit the state by providing low-income families with additional education choices.

But criminally, Walsh fails to mention that the Show-Me Institute's primary funder and President is Rex Sinquefield, who has spent much of the last three years throwing large amounts of money at legislators who promise to support tuition tax-credit (or voucher) legislation. 

­One would think that the rabid advocacy of the Show-Me Institute's chief executive for tuition tax-credit programs is an important fact to note in a story about the Institute's report on the topic, yet MissouriNet's Walsh doesn't spare a sentence to make that fact known.  Walsh simply notes the Show-Me Institute as "a St. Louis-based research and educational institute" rather than an entity created with the express purpose of scrapping our public school system. 

Walsh's uncritical pass-along does little more than provide free webvertising for Sinquefield's study.  How proud he must be.