L.A. Times Does Antonio's Bidding

For the atrocious headline of the day, look no further than the L.A. Times' Mayor seeks to cut phone tax 10%.

This is pure spin -- spin crafted by the mayor's office to dupe L.A. voters into passing a tax hike next February. And the Times' headline writers are all too happy to pass it along as fact to gullible readers.

Here's the deal: The mayor has no interest in cutting anything. The phone tax is likely to soon disappear because it is illegal. Villaraigosa realizes this, and so he wants to put a new phone tax on the ballot to replace the old one. But because the old tax was 10 percent, the mayor realizes that if he sets the new one at 9 percent, he can -- with the help of the L.A. Times -- fool the clueless among the electorate into thinking they're voting for a tax cut when, in reality, they'd be opting for a tax they otherwise wouldn't have to pay at all. (Click here for the Daily News story.)

The Times story, although less than perfectly clear in the beginning, is more honest than its headline. It includes this damning quote from Democratic consultant Darry Sragow:

"This is a strategy that relies on deliberately keeping important information from voters.... It works so long as there's not funded, viable opposition. The minute that there's funded, viable opposition, the strategy falls of its own weight."

Of course, as with Measure R -- the anti-term limits initiative designed to appear pro-term limits -- it's hard to put together a well-funded, viable opposition because the moneyed interests are all in cahoots with City Hall.

And, by all indications, so is the Times.