Author’s bias should have been revealed

Author’s bias should have been revealed

On May 31, you published a “guest view” by Michael Saltsman, who looks nice and young, for a piece entitled “The Summer of Teenagers’ Discontent.” I read it until he started using fuzzy non sequitur logic to justify his position of not raising the minimum wage, and I looked to find out who he is.

You say he is “research director at the Employment Policies Institute, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to studying public policy issues surrounding employment growth.” That sounds pretty benign. Further exploration yielded more significant information. According to the Wikipedia, the organization is a conservative think tank that operates out of the offices of Berman and Co., a Washington D.C. public relations organization with close ties to low-wage corporations such as hotels and restaurants.

In 2009, EPI became engaged in an education campaign called Defeat the Debt, on the national debt. Sounds to me like they are carrying a lot of water for lots of people, but teens appear to be far from their minds. According to Sourcewatch, Berman & Co., a Washington, D.C. public affairs firm owned by lobbyist Rick Berman, represents the tobacco industry, as well as hotels, beer distributors, taverns, and restaurant chains. Berman & Co. lobbies for a host of restaurants. It also operates several front groups, websites, and think tanks that work to keep wages low for restaurants and to block legislation on food safety, secondhand cigarette smoke, and drunken driving. Looks like the so-called “Employment Policies Institute” is one of Rick Berman’s phony-baloney think tanks.

I’m wondering why this was picked up by the DH. Either you have a hidden agenda, or you have failed to do your homework. Either way, you are doing your readers a disservice in not revealing the author’s bias.

Lloyd Pierce

Wheaton