January 17th, 2009:

Media Matters for America wrote:

Media Matters:  Coverage of economy repeats Iraq mistakes

From: Media Matters for America [action@mediamatters.org]
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 5:40 PM
To: tomc2322
Subject: Media Matters: Media Matters: Coverage of economy repeats Iraq mistakes

CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider wonders, “How long will the voters give President Barack Obama to turn the economy around?” Looking back at Presidents Reagan and Clinton, Schneider finds that “Obama can expect midterm grades in two years, and final grades at the end of four. Another conclusion: Grades are based on many subjects, not just the economy.”

I figure the pundits have reached the conclusion that this is no time to sit and pyne over how the economy got to the point it is in the first place. Because if they did, then they would pretty much set their own hair on fire when it dawns on them that the remedies that they espouse are the reason we are in such a deep recession.

Point being: Political fortunes can change in a hurry, and the media pundits are nearly as bad at recognizing that simple fact as they are at making predictions. Maybe it would be best to lay off the speculation that Obama won’t win a second term — at least until he begins his first. The time they save could be used to provide some much-needed balance to news reports about the current economic crisis.

Last weekend, CNN broadcast a two-hour special that consisted entirely of airing an anti-deficit documentary and discussing it with a handful of guests, all of whom agreed with the film’s contention that reducing the national debt must be an immediate and urgent priority.

Balanced news from CNN? The network that hired Glenn Beck?

This is not the first source of the “balance the budget” urgency that has popped up. It is the new talking point for the right-wing neo-nuts. Representative John A. Boehner (R) OH-10, the House minority leader,
was lamenting this on the House floor a couple days ago.

A comment by Boehner jsut two days ago concerning the $825 Billion stimulus package, from MSNBC:

House Minority Leader John Boehner

Boehner says that much of it isn’t going to do anything to help the economy in the short term. He says the approach by Democrats is to “clean out every dime from the taxpayer,” and that the nation can’t “borrow and spend it’s way to prosperity.”

That’s odd. Bush seemed to think we could “borrow and spend” like drunken sailors. Where was this “paygo” crowd that has suddenly arisen? Didn’t Bush & Kerry debate this subject? The Republicans scoffed at this idea in 2004. They were all about proving Reagan’s idiotic “trickle-down” true. Deficits meant nothing then, and Bush could just borrow and spend until the Treasury exploded, it didn’t’ matter. The stories did, and will always follow the corporate will. If the guy who signed my paycheck said to air a certain biased documentary, then I would have to do that or find another job.

Economist Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research argues that the film’s deeply flawed focus on the deficit is not only misguided, but dangerous: “The basic story of IOUSA is that the United States suffers from a massive deficit problem. The film constantly comes back to the deficit using a variety of measures that are intended to scare viewers into action. … Hopefully, the film will not have this effect, because there is nothing that the economy needs more right now than very large deficits. … If IOUSA viewers manage to persuade their representatives in Congress to balance the budget then they will be guaranteeing the country another Great Depression.”

Not only did CNN devote two hours to the wrong problem, neither the guests nor the CNN reporters involved offered any real solution. Early on in the program, Alice Rivlin, a director of the Office of Management and Budget under Clinton, did note that reducing overall health-care costs is one way to address Medicare spending — but her CNN hosts all but ignored her. Though CNN devoted two hours to the program, they never explored how we might reduce health-care costs — and that was the closest they came to offering an actual solution.

Reduce health care costs! What a concept! Single-payer health care is the best way to reduce costs. How much extra do we pay for the HMO management?

One way to reduce health care costs is to hang the HMO lawyers – the ones that come after those who can’t pay their massive bills. The insurance the patient thought they had didn’t pay like they thought it would and now they will lose their home. Now they get phone calls from collection agencies wanting the bill paid. Hang the lawyers, and watch health care get cheaper.

Thank you, Media Matters, for sending me this email. Thanks for pointing out the “chicken littleness” of CNN’s documentary.