Stephen King once said the trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool. Gambling cronies are hoping Texas has enough trusting tools in it that they can pass scary pro-gambling legislation.
Jim Forsyth of WOAI in San Antonio has carried the gambling lobby’s water since the session started.
Early this year Forsyth worked to message that the Straus family had divested itself of interest in one racetrack, the one their name is most publicly associated with, freeing Joe Straus to publicly move the issue. Forsyth wasn’t so quick to point out that they still have stakes in other Texas tracks.
Today Forsyth switched strategies and acted as PR man for John Montford, the car salesman hired to sell Texans a gambling lemon. Montford was recently an Obama operative at GM, hired after the takeover.
One of the false impressions Forsyth’s propaganda would create is that Montford is a conservative. He is not. To help try to make it stick, Forsyth avoids mentioning the political party Montford has loyally served for decades – the Democrat Party. Forsyth also avoids mention of Montford’s previous associations with the Obama Administration.
Another false impression Montford’s propaganda would create is that Montford has won over many Republicans for pro-gambling legislation. Not true.
In fact, in a gambling propaganda piece published just this morning Forsyth had to soften his original subheading from “Republicans are signing on to bills they previously opposed,” to, “Republicans moving toward support for expanded gambling.” That is more like it. The first is untrue and the second is so thin it is almost invisible.
Gambling legislation proposed this session is being pushed uniformly by Democrats. In his story, Forsyth never actually gets around to mentioning his mythical Republican converts to the gospel of Montford.
Finally, Forsyth pushes the pro-gambling crowd’s favorite statistic about several billion dollars being spent on gambling out of state by Texans. Unfortunately, three dollars in government revenue are lost or spent for every dollar of government revenue paid by a casino. This is because of higher law enforcement costs, higher social service costs, and reduced productivity in locales burdened with casinos.
There is a reason gambling states nationwide are in terrible financial shape.
Forsyth’s attempts to generate pro-gambling momentum out of thin air aren’t very convincing.