WZZM 13 provides a platform for the Destination Kent Committee to claim misinformation regarding August 6th Hotel Tax vote billboard

WZZM 13 does a major disservice to TV viewers in Kent County with an awful story that does nothing more than provide a platform for the group that is pushing voters to approve the August 6th ballot initiative that would increase the hotel & motel tax by 3% to fund the Amphitheater, Soccer Stadium and Aquarium projects.

The story, which aired on Tuesday, states that there is a new billboard up that is “misinformation” regarding the Hotel Tax Ballot Initiative. The billboard was paid for using money from the TGIF Victory Fund PAC, which funds a variety of conservative political candidates in West Michigan, based on data from the site Transparency USA.  You can see if the data that some of their money has gone to Outfront Media, the billboard company that has the Vote No on the August 6th hotel tax message.

Unfortunately, channel 13 did bother to contact anyone from the TGIF Victory Fund PAC to get their take on the August 6th hotel tax. What WZZM 13 did was contact the people who are part of the pro-Hotel Tax crowd, specifically the Destination Kent Committee, thus providing them with an opportunity to say that the billboard is misinformation.

Only Andy Johnson, who works for the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, was afforded the opportunity to speak on this matter. The Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce is one of the main groups behind the Amphitheater, Soccer Stadium and Aquarium projects that will be funded by the increased hotel tax if more people vote yes on August 6th.

In addition, WZZM 13 engaged in some of their own misinformation when the reporter says that “those behind the proposal want to remind people that this is all visitor funded.” This is simply not true. Roughly 10% of those who stay in hotels and motels are Kent County residents, which include a number of people who are housing insecure and often will stay in motels for weeks at a time as opposed to going to a shelter.

WZZM 13 not only parrots misleading information, they also fail to practice the principle of giving both sides of these kinds of issues an opportunity to speak and present their position. Channel 13 miserably failed the public in this instance, which is not surprising, since they have primarily been doing promotional stories for the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium and the Aquarium. 

Lastly, it is worth pointing out that none of the four daily news sources in Grand Rapids – MLive, WOODTV8, WZZM 13 and WXMI 17 – has done one single story that provides a critique of the August 6th Hotel Tax Ballot Initiative, a critique like the one that GRIID has been providing.