Eye on Jacksonville has challenged local media to document the wild claim that proponents of consolidation promised residents of the unincorporated parts of Duval County they would immediately be provided with free water and sewer service in return for their support.

We asked two television reporters the source of their information after they parroted the claim that such a promise existed.

One has not answered. The other did, after we wrote about the issue.

He gave as his source a column that appeared in a small, liberal newspaper.

However, the newspaper column doesn’t document anything. It simply states as fact – without any attribution – that The Promise was made.

The newspaper column is cringe-worthy – standard lib script featuring The Oppressed and The Oppressors.

In a stunning amalgamation of anti-capitalism, anti-consolidation and anti-conservatism it says that the residents who were duped by (gasp) “businessmen” were robbed of their vote by these evil profiteers – and worse.

This narrative apparently is now Jacksonville’s own homegrown urban legend, as lacking in substance as the liberal Russian Collusion Delusion of 2016-20.

It goes without saying that the good guys were of one race and the bad guys were of another. That is ingrained in the liberal psyche. Pitting Americans against each other on the basis of their skin color once was thought despicable, but now is commonplace in the Democrat media.

In fact, the Urban League and NAACP supported consolidation, and a majority of black residents voted in favor of the new government structure.

Yet, in the vivid imagination of the newspaper writer, the premise of The Promise cannot be questioned. “It’s a matter of public record,” he wrote. Also, “indisputable.”

Strange that he has not cited a single document or public statement containing The Promise.

As Eye has pointed out, if there were one it would be meaningless.

A politician’s words do not establish a legally enforceable claim for free stuff ever after. And would a politician’s broken promise really be news?

Even the City Council cannot bind future councils to an expenditure. That’s why there are annual budgets.

Because consolidation cut costs, the city was able to provide a lot of new infrastructure while cutting taxes 10 years in a row. Since then, billions of dollars have been spent and as Eye showed in a comparison of council districts, those claiming to be “neglected” have gotten their fair share of infrastructure spending.

Richard Bowers was head of the city Housing and Urban Development department in the early days of consolidation. He told Eye, “If you research the promises made at consolidation, you will see that there are no significant promises that were not addressed beginning in 1968.”

But consolidation didn’t just cheat people out of infrastructure as far as the Far Left is concerned. According to the liberal newspaper columnist, a story about a killing or an injustice in Jacksonville “often” is also a story about consolidation.

That’s a mind-boggling accusation but, again, in accord with the liberal world view. The Illuminati are behind it all, no doubt.

At one time, the media dealt in facts. Today, it is all spin and supposition, and facts simply are assumed.