The Bunion’s Humpy Stiverson has received the coveted Chauncey Bailey award for Excellence in Investigative Journalism for his work as a freelancer in the Berkeleyside comments section. Under a pseudonym, Stiverson was the first to refute the UC Berkeley School of Public Health’s report that soda consumption was down 52% in the three years after the Berkeley Soda Tax passed.
Stiverson received the award for his innovative approach to fact finding. It is a technique rarely used by anyone in the media looking to fact check the prevailing narrative. He did a Google search that turned up actual year over year soda tax revenue data from a publicly available city of Berkeley document. In his acceptance speech, Humpy said, “in a time and community of unbelievable group think, it is important to be brave and seek the truth, no matter how much effort it takes. Without truth, we have nothing.”
2016-2019 show a cumulative decline in soda tax revenue, and therefore an equivalent decline in consumption, of 9.67%. Stiverson indicated, “I have a marketing degree from a mediocre state school in Texas. Far be it from me to challenge the prestigious UC Berkeley scholars without doing the legwork, so I double checked with my calculator three different ways and it turns out 9.67% is in fact quite a bit less than the 52% reported by the UC’s goal seeking community survey.”
Since the publication of his award-winning story, Stiverson has continued to analyze data about the Soda Tax. “2018-2019 actually saw a 6.2% rise in soda tax revenue. If the goal was to actually reduce soda consumption, and not just create more jobs in the bloated Berkeley bureaucracy, the trend seems to be working against the soda tax crowd. Of course, I suspect actually reducing soda consumption was never the intent.” Stiverson’s parting shot was, “if you really want to reduce consumption, the soda tax should be prominently displayed at the point of purchase, every single transaction. The few times that did happen, the city council went out of their way to shame the retailers that shared this information with consumers.”
Stiverson was also queried about the impact of enterprising Cal students beverage distribution business. He suggested these operations “did not substantially impact” his analysis.
The Bunion solutes you Humpy! Congratulations on your award and your relentless pursuit of the truth.