I missed this when it occurred a little over a week ago, but the Wall Street Journal is now saying the term “death tax” should not be used by its reporters when writing about estate taxes.
Here’s the money quote:
“…the term death tax has become too politicized to be of any use except in editorials. Bury it.”
This sudden and dramatic drop in temperature in Hell apparently was prompted by what the Journal said was negative reader reaction to this story on October 31 with the lead “With the federal estate tax disappearing for most people, state death taxes have emerged as a surprise new worry.”
As I posted at the time, the Journal needed to correct itself and apologize. It just did one of those explicitly and one implicitly.
Yeah, that didn’t last long…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126065499580589185.html
“Under the law as it is today, the federal estate tax, known among critics as the “death” tax, is scheduled to disappear in 2010 and then spring back to life in 2011.”
They just added “known among critics” in front of Death Tax. Next it’ll be “President Obama, known among critics as Hitler…” They’re as Fair&Balanced as Faux News.