Talk:David Cay Johnston

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We need better disambiguation.[edit]

{David_Cay_Johnston}:

In a small town in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, a fellow named Jim Weaknecht ran a little fin, feather, and fur outfitting club. He sold hunting bows and fishing tackle and things like that. One day a big company named Cabela's came to town. This little town – 4,100 people – agreed to give Cabela’s $36 million to build the world’s largest outdoor goods store. That’s over $8,000 for every man, woman and child in Hamburg, more than the entire city budget for everything -- police patrols, road repair – for more than a decade. Jim Weaknecht charged lower prices. He was run out of business. While he thinks he might have been run out of business anyway, he also says that this isn’t fair. This is not business. This is the government helping the politically connected. I think most people walking into a WalMart, Cabela’s, … {and} a lot of other stores {-} have absolutely no idea that the sales tax money is going to the owners of the store.

[[ hopiakuta Please do sign your signature on your message. ~~ Thank You. -]] 17:30, 18 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestions[edit]

1. In the two sections (two?) that deal with Johnston's books, I'm wondering why the information isn't presented in chronological order?

2. There's no mention of his contributory participation in television news shows. Perhaps he contributes to radio, too, but I don't know about that.

3. There's no mention of the documentary Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? in which Johnston is a featured expert: http://heist-themovie.com/featuredExperts.html

4. This information, from a site that appealed for funding for the Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? film, provides a citation for his family information: http://mourningamerica.com/david_cay_johnston.html

5. Online chat about his tax opinions from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/2004/02/12/0212chat_transcript.html

I don't know how to create or re-number citations and since it literally takes hours to try to figure out how to do anything here on WP, I'm leaving it to those who already know. Thanks and carry on, Wordreader (talk) 21:06, 19 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There's no discussion as to what Johnston did to avoid military service during the hot years of the Vietnam draft if, as the article says, he attended six colleges but graduated from none. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.49.22.149 (talk) 00:59, 9 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Nothing about Johnston's belief that higher taxes creates jobs?[edit]

David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and author of The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use "Plain English" to Rob You Blind, says higher taxes can actually create jobs, not kill them.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/higher-taxes-create-jobs-cut-deficit-david-cay-134043778.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.224.251.239 (talk) 20:14, 23 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]


He's won awards for his intricate knowledge of taxation. Only the high points are worthy of Wikipedia, much is left out. For example, some of his "accomplishments" in just the last few weeks, according to his Twitter:

20 hours ago I’ll be a guest tonight on @allinwithchris about GOP tax cuts for the rich bill.

@DavidCayJ Dec 14 This morning I’m a guest on @democracynow about the wildly unpopular tax cut bill that raises taxes on many who are not rich.

David Cay Johnston Retweeted Dec 7 In celebration of the 50th episode of “TrumpWatch with Jesse Lent,” we welcome back one of our favorite guests, David Cay Johnston, author of “The Making of Donald Trump” and founder of the nonprofit news site

6 Dec 2017 Home after lectures on 5 continents on 5 Fridays; 51,923 miles (2x around Earth + home to West Coast) helping investigative reporters in Norway, SoAfrica, Jordan, US and discussing sound tax policy (Australia). Nap time!

Dec 5 Tonight at top of the show I’ll be @Lawrence’s guest with @JillWineBanks on Deutsche Bank, Trump and funny money

Nov 28 Speaking Dec 13 evening in Jamestown NY on rise of authoritarians worldwide, human dignity, govt-created inequality — sponsored by Unitarians. If you live in Western NY please come, bring 20somethings with you.

--2602:306:CFCE:1EE0:D8E5:5F9F:3C04:78E2 (talk) 21:21, 15 December 2017 (UTC)Doug Bashford[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Inaccuracy on when I taught at Syracuse[edit]

The page says "From 2009 to 2014" I taught through May 2016. I assume this is just a typo but would someone of the nice people who created and have updated this page please fix this. Davidcay (talk) 17:22, 22 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I see a citation is also requested regaring the Tony Cooks case and his acquittal at his fifth trial.
Here you go with links to my LATimes stories:
Man Acquitted of Murder--After 5 Trials and 7 Years - latimes http://articles.latimes.com/1986-11-11/news/mn-24831_1_new-trial
Nov 11, 1986 - It took five trials and almost seven years for Tony Cooks' nightmare to end, but Monday in a Compton courtroom, a jury found him innocent of a ... Long Ordeal of a Murder Suspect : Tony Cooks of Compton, a Victim of ... http://articles.latimes.com/1986-11-13/news/vw-25238_1_mistaken-identity
Nov 13, 1986 - On Monday, in a fifth trial, Cooks was acquitted, partly on the basis of new ... It's been almost seven years since Tony Cooks of Compton could ... Murder Suspect Will Go on Trial for Fifth Time : Guilt, Innocence to Be ... http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-25/news/vw-6898_1_murder-charge
Thanks, David Cay Johnston. Davidcay (talk) 17:38, 22 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Your edit request could not be reviewed because it is unclear what specific changes you'd like to be made. Please include a description of each requested change in the form of:
"Please change X to Y using Z."
X Y Z
Verbatim description of old text coming out of the article Verbatim description of new text going into the article The reference that verifies the change
Additionally, all requests must be formatted using the appropriate Wiki Markup. If you require help with this formatting, assistance may be sought at the Help desk or the Teahouse.  spintendo  13:41, 25 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]
@Spintendo: Would you be able to explain what exactly is unclear about this article subject's request to change "From 2009 to 2014" to "From 2009 to 2016", and their kind provision of additional sources to investigate fixing a {{cn}}? This user has already been unnecessarily username blocked, and as the responding OTRS agent, I would appreciate this edit request not be closed summarily until it is dealt with appropriately. TheDragonFire (talk) 05:08, 26 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]
It is unclear exactly what changes the editor would like to be made because component "Z" in the table above was not provided. Here are his directions:
  1. "The page says "From 2009 to 2014" I taught through May 2016. I assume this is just a typo but would someone of the nice people who created and have updated this page please fix this."
    1. I see now that the COI editor would like 2014 to be changed to 2016. It would have been more clear if he had specifically stated "Change 2014 to read 2016 and here is the reference that justifies that change." As the request now stands, I don't see where he provides a reference specifically for the date change. All information in the lead of an article needs to be referenced somewhere in the main body of text. Currently, that claim regarding Syracuse is neither mentioned nor referenced anywhere else in the article. I have changed the date, but have added a citation needed template as this claim needs a reference.
  2. "I see a citation is also requested regaring [sic] the Tony Cooks case and his acquittal at his fifth trial. Here you go with links to my LATimes stories."
    1. This direction says that there are links provided for these references, but no links have been given. It is instead, a citation listing the reference only, with no URL provided for verification. All news items from the LA Times should have accompanying URL's, no matter how old the reporting is. Unless a URL is provided, verification cannot be made. Ordinarily, URL's are not required for sources. However, because this is a request coming directly from the subject, the COI edit request reviewer asking for URL's to be provided to these sources is not out of line (especially considering the COI editor them-self said that they would be providing these links). Once links to these references have been provided, the citation needed template can be removed.
  3. Additionally, the article makes use of quotations taken from the sources it has included, but these quotations have been added without attribution as to the author who made them. These quotations were made ostensibly to avoid a claim of being improperly paraphrased, which they would be without quotation marks. But the quotation marks are only half the story, as the author from those sources who initially made the statements needs to be identified. If the author who made these statements cannot be provided, then the statements should be taken out of quotation marks and paraphrased appropriately. (See WP:CLOSEPARAPHRASE.)
 spintendo  22:16, 26 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for making these changes. I have replied further at your talk page. TheDragonFire (talk) 09:18, 27 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

There is still the question of the remaining citation needed templates. Those claims are shown below under the highlighted points # 1 and # 2:

  1.  First Claim  "He once tracked down a killer whom the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department failed to catch, resulting in an innocent man winning acquittal at his fifth trial."
    1. One of the sources provided for this states the following in a forward to the article: "In 1983, Times staff writer David Johnston reported in View on the case of Tony Cooks, who had been convicted of murder after four trials. Johnston's story, "Doubts Haunt Murder Conviction," was judged the best news story of the year by the California-Nevada editors of United Press International. On Monday, in a fifth trial, Cooks was acquitted, partly on the basis of new information uncovered in Johnston's investigation."
    2. Based on the above, it was Johnston's reporting in the article titled "Doubts Haunt Murder Conviction" above all others that was the piece that helped to free this person, and yet that was not one of the sources provided in this request. It would seem based on the assertion of the LA Times of the importance of that piece that it should be provided. The other two provided articles do not lay out this fact, other than what I repeated from the forward above. (No URL need be provided this time, since the second LA Times piece confirms the importance of the first, I only wish to add the particulars of that piece, date issue #, etc.)
    3. The claim should then more closely resemble how it is worded in the LA times ("Partly on the basis of new information revealed in Johnston's investigation....") placed in quotations if this is not to be paraphrased.
  2.  Second Claim  "From 2009 to 2016 he was a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer who taught the tax, property, and regulatory law of the ancient world at Syracuse University College of Law and the Whitman School of Management".
    1. I would think that references provided from either of those institutions would work perfectly to remove the citation needed inline template. Please advise if you have any further ideas on what might work to address these two remaining item's referencing needs. Thank you!  spintendo  11:34, 27 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Update 27-JUN-2018

Checked 1st Claim  Citation needed tag removed: I was unable to locate the original article "Doubts Haunt Murder Conviction" from 1983. That such an important article should be so difficult to find is odd, but I'm not prepared to let that inability stop the removal of the template. As the LA Times article from 1986 which mentions the original article in a 2-sentence forward section is the only reference from the Times that is usable for this claim, I appended it to the article. I reworded part of the information (and quoted another part) so as to align with the Times article, and removed the CN template. Regards,  spintendo  20:43, 27 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]
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