The other day I laid into professional prevaricator Tim Eyman for claiming a Snohomish County judge had ordered the original I-18 language back on the ballot, when in reality, all the judge did was set an August 24 hearing date. Surely Tim’s lawyers had explained the judge’s ruling, but that didn’t stop him from hyping this “huge legal victory” to potential contributors.
Well if you have any doubts that Tim Eyman is an incorrigible liar, his latest email should put them to rest.
In a press-release-cum-fundraising-email sent this morning to supporters and the media, Tim perpetuates his lie, and backs it up by deceitfully appending an erroneous version of a Seattle P-I article that has since been corrected.
Here is the opening paragraph of the article as it appears in Tim’s email:
A Snohomish County judge yesterday ordered that the original language of a ballot initiative that would reduce the size of the King County Council from 13 to nine members stand, reversing the effect of a recent vote by the council to delay the measure if passed.
And here is the opening paragraph of the actual P-I article as it currently appears online:
A Snohomish County Superior Court judge yesterday ordered set an Aug. 24 hearing date for a judge to consider whether the original language of an initiative to reduce the size of the King County Council from 13 to nine should be on the November ballot.
I’ve never understood why news publications continue to look the other way at Tim’s habit of violating their copyright by reprinting articles without permission, for commercial purposes. (And you can’t get much more commercial than a fundraising email for Tim’s personal compensation PAC.) But if protecting their intellectual property isn’t compelling enough, perhaps protecting their integrity is… for this isn’t the first time Tim has knowingly reprinted the wrong draft of an article or column.
On Feb. 6 Tim sent an email to supporters allegedly reprinting a column he had published in the Tacoma News Tribune. Problem was, it wasn’t actually the column the TNT printed on Jan. 18, but rather an earlier, much different draft that the TNT’s editors had forced him to extensively rewrite.
So let this be a lesson to my friends in the media: Tim doesn’t just lie to you, he uses you to repeat his lies to your colleagues and the public. He has complete and utter disregard for the press in general, and you personally. Thus nothing, absolutely nothing he says or writes should be taken at face value.
Even his alleged news clippings.
