It's a Provision of the Bill, Not the Damned Bill

A request to people writing about the issue: Stop making EFCA and 'card check' sound interchangeable. They're not.

For example, when Kevin Mooney, a columnist for the Washington Examiner writes: "Rep. Lois Capps, D-CA, a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check)".

If Kevin would've taken the time to read the bill (which comes in at a whopping 1300 words), he'd know 'card check' is one of several provisions of the bill. It's arguably not even the most important.

Now, in the interest of trying to avoid sounding overly shrill, I'd like to point out that there's nothing wrong with Kevin (or anyone else) not knowing the difference. It's fairly nuanced, and the 'card check' provision generates by far the most media attention. But...if you're going to write about it (or if you're going to fact check it, or if you're going to edit it), then you need to do it in a manner that avoids making people less knowledgeable about the issue than they were before.

I wouldn't get so fired up if it didn't happen all the time.