San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board

One of the benefits of Proposition 89 is that it cuts out unnecessary middle men. With clean money and a level playing field, ideas can be judged by the content, not by how much money was spent paying to distribute the message. Under such circumstances, the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board would be at a great disadvantage.

You see, the Union-Tribune has a legacy voice. The editorial board is read because the paper has been around for a hundred years, not because the quality of the editorial board's content is anything special. In the open market-place of ideas, where the amount of ink one possess doesn't determine audience size, Chris Reed's blog is read less often than hundreds if not thousands of other California bloggers who succeed even though they don't have a 100 year old paper proping them up.

I think this helps explain why the Union-Tribune is so defensive about Proposition 89 -- like the special interests and big money they are middlemen between voters and policy. The fact the ed board dropped their second attack on clean money belies their fear that they are only relevant in terms of barrels of ink, not in terms of ideas.

In fact, the editorial reads like a transcription of Allan Zaremberg's whines to reporters. These are just a few of the reasons why the Editorial Board of the San Diego Union-Tribune have been awarded the Joker of the Day Award.