Bringing Home the Bacon

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In 2022, Catawba County Schools started using a software program for middle school students in summer school. More than 200 students booted up Failure Free Reading before the district discovered problems with the software and stopped using it.

Failure Free Reading has received $4.5 million from the state legislature since 2021—and that spending is not unusual. Over the past four years, the legislature’s use of secretive, no-bid grants—sometimes called pork barrel spending or earmarks—has exploded. 

Lawmakers have directed billions to private organizations, many of which were recently created, have little track record, and used the state money to pay for property, construction, and equipment, rather than to provide services that would benefit taxpayers, an analysis by The Assembly found.

A two-year state budget in the early 1990s included $64.7 million for 37 groups, according to a 1996 analysis from the legislature’s Fiscal Research Division.

As Ren Larson reports, earmarks rose to $1.4 billion over the 2023-25 budgeting cycle, doled out to more than 600 groups.

Bringing Home the Bacon

In the last four years, state lawmakers gave $2.3 billion of taxpayer money to hundreds of organizations without a competitive process or public hearings. Will the next state auditor do anything about it?

Have a news tip for our team? You can reach us at scoops@theassemblync.com.

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Lies of All Sizes

Bill Adair spent years unpacking lies as the creator of PolitiFact. Now the Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University is taking on politicians’ penchant for prevarication in a new book. Beyond the Big Lie looks at lies, why people think they can get away with them, and whether the problem has gotten worse in today’s political climate. 

We asked Adair a few questions about the book, which is out this week. 

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What struck you about the particular lies and rumors swirling around the storm and response? What have you thought of efforts so far to counteract them?

As a reporter in Florida, I covered a lot of disasters and saw how political they could become. But Helene showed that anyone can now join the politicians in spreading lies about the government response to a disaster. That prompted some Republicans to tell other officials in their party to shut up.

As usual, government agencies seemed a little slow in speaking up about what they were doing. But I was glad to see them realize that they need to counteract the lies with facts.

Bad information of all sorts can take off in record time now, thanks to the internet. But there’s also a small online army ready to check every quip or claim. Does it balance itself out in some way, or just amplify the noise?

There are definitely times when I feel that the online army succeeds in counteracting the lies. For example, the ridiculous claims about immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio got the kind of widespread debunking that in the past was only a dream. And I’m sure there are millions of people who were persuaded about the truth by that debunking.

But the problem is that there are millions of others who rely on partisan media who are still thinking, you know, Donald Trump is right about the danger to those dogs and cats!

Does the average voter care about political lying anymore? There are so many stories out there about candidates caught in lies big and small, who get elected anyway. 

I don’t think lying should be a disqualifier from getting elected. (If so, there’d be no one able to fill most state legislatures!) But I hope after people read my book that they will have a deeper understanding of how and why politicians lie and they will conclude that we can’t tolerate this any more because it prevents politicians from having a serious conversation about issues such as climate or immigration.

Where does this leave journalists, and journalism? Do we need to be covering lies–or misinformation, falsehoods, whatever you want to call them–in some new or different way?

Yes! We need to change our approach. Too often we publish fact-checks and wait for people to come to us. That’s not working because a big segment of the population doesn’t like or trust fact-checking. They’re not going to visit PolitiFact or FactCheck.org.

So we need to find ways to get the content to them, especially to conservative voters who are the most resistant to fact-checks. One way is to encourage more conservative outlets to do what The Dispatch has done–establish their own fact-checking site.

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What We’re Reading

Under Water: Fewer than 1 percent of Buncombe County structures, including homes and businesses, are covered by flood insurance, according to the Asheville Watchdog.

So Shiny: One of the two companies that manufacture high-purity quartz used in semiconductors and other high-tech products from mines in western North Carolina is operating again, per the AP.

Still Searching: Ninety-two people are still unaccounted for in North Carolina as first responders sort through the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, NBC News reports.

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Our Recent Stories

Helene Has Put New Stress On Asheville’s Unhoused Population

The area already faced rising housing prices and a growing number of people without homes.

On the Ground With Fort Liberty’s Storm Relief Teams

About 1,400 soldiers from the base are helping western North Carolina settle into a new normal.

Mark Robinson and the Suspension of Disbelief

Professional wrestling explains much of what you need to know about the Republican gubernatorial candidate’s political rise and fall.

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