Is the Sun Even Trying Anymore?

A misleading headline over a piece whose central statement is a blatant falsehood – that’s what we find on the Las Vegas Sun editorial page today.

Today the Sun printed a letter to the editor it headlined “Nevada hardly spends too much on education”. The problem with the headline? Other than declaring he used to be a Clark County School District teacher the author of the letter doesn’t mention Nevada.

Furthermore, the writer’s central premise is contained in the statement, “When we compare our public education spending with other industrialized nations in the world we habitually find ourselves at the bottom of the rating.” This claim is absolutely false.

Every single study I’ve seen, including this one, reveals the United States is either at or very near the top in K-12 spending among industrialized nations. Our higher ed spending is by far greater than any other nation. This holds true even when considered as a percentage of GDP.

While the Sun cannot be held responsible for the hundreds(?) of letters it receives every day, it certainly is responsible for the content of the few of those it chooses to print. It is very unlikely that such an easily refutable statement of fact that supported a conservative position would make it past the Sun’s editors and into the paper. But some things are just too good to check. The headline is 100% the responsibility of the Sun. It was written by their editors.

While, by definition, the editorial page of a newspaper is supposed to express opinion, a paper’s editorial page editors have a responsibility not to print libelous or false statements. With this letter, the Sun fails this very low standard.