Creating Your Convenient Narrative

The Star Ledger Editorial Board asserted that “NJ Pensions are stingy, not generous” and they backed it up by citing:

Of the 100 largest public pension plans in the country, we rank 95th, according to a careful study by New Jersey Policy Perspective [NJPP], a liberal think-tank with the motto “Facts Matter.”

That study included this chart:

Notice no identification of the other plans in that chart? Who was that outlier short straw at the far right and which plan was the most generous according to the NJPP way of thinking?

It doesn’t matter since the idea was to get us all thinking that benefits under the New Jersey public pension system should not be cut since they are already stingy, however slipshod the evidence.  Using the NJPP methodology New Jersey would be ranked 8th in generosity among those 100 plans were they to provide NO pension at all to their employees.

But why would the Star Ledger Editorial Board jump on board this propaganda train so easily.  It’s as if they had written the report themselves.   Well…..

According to the NJPP website their newest staff member is:

Carly Rothman Siditsky, Development Director, joined NJPP in September 2014 from The Star-Ledger, where she most recently served as Director for Social Media. Previously, Carly was a member of the Star-Ledger editorial board, the online editor for opinion and a reporter and web editor covering topics ranging from local politics to health to Hurricane Sandy.

The latest form 990 filed by NJPP does not list donors but one can assume that those who give them $478,777 annually have an interest in seeing the narrative convenient to their interests corroborated, if only by themselves and their money.