Jennifer Davis: Reporter or mouthpiece?

Reporter Jennifer Davis has completely bought into the rhetoric of those
who want to close Fire Station 11.

? Peoria City Council members hit snag on 2004 budget plans

/Current interim city manager Steve Van Winkle, knowing the
council’s determination to keep the fire station open, crafted a
budget that is balanced mainly on the back of the capital program./

“On the backs of the capital program” is John Morris speak for any
budget that keeps fire station 11 open, thereby using money for public
safety that could instead be used to give handouts to developers and for
other economic development schemes, like the money the city is planning
to cough over to help build a new museum along the riverfront
(a project fervently
supported by the JS editorial board).

She did the same thing earlier this week:

? New budget battle looms

/On Tuesday, the City Council again will consider a spending plan
for 2004 that closes a $2.2 million budget gap mainly on the back of
the capital budget.
—
Most of the city’s budget gap comes from the $500,000 needed to keep
Fire Station 11 open and the $1.2 million needed to meet the city’s
pension obligations. Fines and fees also have been lower than
expected, resulting in a $213,423 shortfall./

There are millions of dollars of spending that could be cut. This
includes things like spending for the Municipal Band, spending on signs
and banners for special events. It also includes the rental inspections
program, which has not resulted in fewer slum properties. They could
also cut the politically popular sidewalk replacement program. They
could also stop paying for health care for the part-time politicians
on the city coucil.

But some council members have decided that the cause of the problem is
this fire station, which apparently doesn’t save enough lives for their
tastes (note that it does same some lives, just not enough to matter to
the budget cutters).

Jennifer Davis — whose reporting has been atrocious since she became
the city hall reporter — has completely bought into the rhetoric. She’s
reporting their opinion — that the fire station is the cause of the
budget problems the city is experiencing — as an established fact that
needs no attribution. I java detailed here
and here
about how she has
puffed up the Heart of Illinois plan instead of simply reported it. Her
reporting hasn’t been all that investigative. She devoted an entire
article to trying to
disprove statements made by Gary Sandberg, an outspoken critic of the
king of political thinking Davis has been reporting as established fact.

Since she was appointed to replace Sonya Klopfenstein
at city hall, Davis
hasn’t done anything to impress me. She has, in fact, done plenty to
make me not trust her reporting.

? Looking good heading into retirement

This is the funniest thing Luciano has written in years.