On the Contrary

Today I purposely tuned into CNN’s Reliable Sources to see if Howard Kutz would discuss John Stewart’s demonstration of their total lack of journalistic professionalism by again and again failing to fact test the wild claims Republicans have been making, while they did take some of their busy time to fact check a SNL sketch of Obama failures.  The piece that John did was instructive of how the media fails to correct obvious inaccuracies (See Monday’s Blog, Tis the Winter of My Discontent) leaving false impressions of credibility to outright lies or miss-characterizations. It is probably the most important thing the press could have examined about how they are manipulated by politicians and become simply megaphones for the message.

In one of the more cowardly moves by CNN, they ignored the story, probably because it reflects so badly on the professionalism of their journalists.  What was demonstrated is that these guys and gals are too lazy to do their homework and are just there to echo whatever is said.  It is why we went to war in Iraq for non-existent weapons of mass destruction and it is why the American public is so poorly informed on issues today.  CNN will be the last place I will be getting my news and once again, John Stewart stands as a giant among real journalists, and is the only trusted news source left.

For those of you who are repeat readers you know that I like to sum up the Sunday talk show chatter and see if anything besides the usual Washington echo chamber is on anybody’s agenda.  So I started with Meet the Press who had White House Chief Economist Christina Romer and House demagogue Eric Cantor (R-VA).  It was two interviews you could fast forward through.  Dr. Romer pitched the administrations way forward and Representative Cantor told us they had it all wrong.  Yawn.  Once again we had politicos pitching their politics instead of a reasoned discussion about the way forward.  Let’s face it, if Christina thought we ought to be more aggressive she would never say it since she must push the administration plan, and Cantor, while full of criticism, had no plan of his own.  This interview is a reflection of the chattering classes on cable.  No new ground or any rational look at the policies and the way forward, just the same old dueling political ideologies.  No wonder we never make any progress.

I then ran through (DVR) Reliable Sources (no transcript available) because I knew they were going to talk about John Stewart’s roasting of CNBC and Jim Cramer in particular.  The reason the Daily Show and John Stewart are so important to this country is that he takes the obvious, points it out, and makes fun of it.  Mainstream media is locked in their echo chamber and they are missing the real stories that are staring us in the face.  Enter John Stewart.

Well the panel discussion was interesting with most of panelists recognizing that Stewart was calling out mainstream media for not paying attention to the real story, how did all the experts miss the coming downturn.  Of course, there was Tucker Carlson claiming that this was just a liberal hack job on Cramer.  My how the Right continues to be blinded by their politics.  Sooner or later one would have to ask how this coming major catastrophe in our economic lives was so ignored by the financial community.  But Tucker can’t go there since all he sees is liberals ruining his perfect country.  Why do they have this guy on anything?

To me this story was the epitome of all that is wrong with our media.  The conventional wisdom is that nobody saw the economic disaster coming, but this is belied by a little research on the actual reporting which shows that there were financial journalists (and economists) who were warning of this coming meltdown.  But what became painfully obvious in the Camer interview is that most of the mainstream financial journalists were tools of the financial community.  Their reporting depended on access to the movers and shakers in the financial community and their access was dependent on their echoing what their masters were telling them.

Sadly this same dynamic is at work in the mainstream media as well and is why reporting is so much an echo chamber.  What we get are media talking heads who are tools of the political parties.  Their talking points, questions, and criticisms are part of the carefully crafted political dialogue that they just parrot.  So what we get for news is that same old arguments with no real factual or rational basis to judge them.  I guess the best way to say it is that our news has degenerated into a game of spin with the media nothing more that echo chambers for that spin.  Puppets driven by their puppet masters.  At least it is cheaper than doing real research and background.

Then there was Dick Cheney on CNN telling us that we are less safe today because of the Obama administration following the rule of law and even more important, that the administration is using this economic crisis as an opportunity to expand government.  I have a feeling that you need to watch John Stewart tonight, because the irony here is unbelievable and John King (CNN correspondent) just went along for the ride instead of questioning any of these highly dubious claims from a man who has almost destroyed law and order.  Is it just me or did waiving habeas corpus, rendition, torture, warrantless wire tapping, enemy combatants, and military tribunals not expand the power of government beyond anything we have ever seen?  Did attacking Iraq and now seven years of unending war while al Qaeda rebuilt in Pakistan make us more or less safe?  It is incomprehensible that we still give this man deference instead of challenging his “facts” every step of the way.

There was as usual a bright side and it was once again from Fareed Zacharia on GPS.  I cannot say enough about his approach to discussing important issues.  He rarely ever has on political flacks pitching their spin, but international subject matter experts to give their perspective on various issues.   I won’t bore you with the details, but this is one show where you can really learn something and question some of your own preconceptions.

Alas, this morning the news was all about public anger over AIG and the bank bail out.  Anger, anger, anger.  Although it is a real emotion that many of us are feeling, emotion is not what is going to solve this crisis and I have yet to hear (except on blogs such as the Baseline Scenario) what our real options are.  Do we have an option to public spending for stimulus and is what we have done enough?  What does history from the Great Depression or the Japanese lost decade tell us?  What are possible scenarios to bailing out the banks and what are the pros and cons?  What happens if we do nothing?

Oh, I agree we have heard these arguments, but only as political talking points.  Where are the economists (mainstream) and what can they teach us?  We are not being educated by our press.  They are failing as journalists.  How many of you know the real crisis in Europe that could make our problems infinitely worse?  The press once again are simply acting as an echo chamber of the political spin.  Oh by the way did I mention that the financial analysis and advice for our way forward is being giving by the same talking heads that missed the whole economic crisis?  When will it ever end? When will we ever learn?  Where have all the flowers gone?

Usually I write this blog with a general theme in mind, but Bits and Pieces are things that may seem unrelated, but lend to the overall malady in our country today:  So here are this weeks gems:

• I usually watch Meet the Press, Reliable Sources, and Fareed Zakaria’s GPS on Sunday with snippets of CNN’s State of the Union.  Except for Fareed, I had to turn them off.  On Meet the Press, David Gregory is no Tim Russert.  One of Tim’s great attributes was to let the guest fully answer a question without interrupting, in a sense letting them speak for themselves and giving them all the rope they needed.  David seems to have an agenda when he continually interrupts to challenge an answer.  He needs to step back and let his guests answer the hard questions fully without his constant interrupting to challenge, usually using the other side’s talking points.  By doing this he is being controlled by the opposition instead of conducting an insightful interview.
• Meet the Press also failed in their round table discussion as it was a reflection of the Washington echo chamber instead of reasoned consideration of the issues.  If you just repeat the arguments being made by politcal hacks, what good are you?  The hot button issue was the Obama mortgage bailout plan and the anger that some abusers might benefit.  But they focused on the anger, reinforcing it, instead of looking at the plan’s pros and cons, and alternatives, if there are any to the plan itself.  It was a waste of time, did nothing but reinforce misplaced anger, and did not inform.  Could they have one economist to bring some rationalism to this discussion of emotionalism or the political opinions of the day?
• Reliable Sources is usually a discussion of how the press is treating a specific subject, not the subject itself.  I lost interest when it was about Roland Burris, the lady who had the litter of kids in California, and other non-sequiturs.  I just don’t care.  Both of these people are just sideshows to the real issues we face and I don’t care if I ever hear of them again.  Illinois, get your house in order, and California, we already have enough mouths to fed which we can’t afford.
• Then we get to the bright light which was Fareed Zakaria’s GPS.  Here we had a real discussion about the efficacy of further military adventures in Afghanistan, the economy with real economists, and then a discussion of both the economy and world affairs in Asia from experts living in those areas.  It was the difference between the Washington echo chamber (just political talking points being rehashed) and real discussion of real ideas.  What a breath of fresh air.  I suggest for those who missed it, read the transcript (GPS).
• California is in big trouble and the recent settlement of the budget resolved nothing.  Once again we are hamstrung by small minds when they negotiated away the 12¢ tax on gas giving up $2 billion in revenue per year.  Since gas went up to $4/gallon and is now down around $2.50/gallon, who would have noticed the 12¢?   Yet this tax  would have created a fairly consistent source of revenue for the state that would also reflect our long term goal of reducing global warming.  In addition there is still borrowing in the plan to make ends meet.  Just how deep a hole do we want to dig?  We need a new State Constitution that gets rid of the mandatory spending, dumps the two-thirds majority for budgets, and gets rid of the term limits.  Why is the obvious so hard to do?  I do like the idea of open primaries and a rainy day fund.  It is a start.
• Governor Schwarzenegger noted recently that California (He is an acknowledged infrastructure fan) had a long-term transportation plan which is why the state is way ahead of any other in implementing high speed rail, but the nation does not.  If we continue to let Congress piece meal fund their states for transportation, we are never going to have an integrated, cost effective, and multi-modal transportation system.  Oh I am sorry, that smacks of government planning and is evil.  What was I thinking?
• The Republican’s lunacy of denying the stimulus money is based upon a short-term belief that all we need is tax cuts and the giant deficit they created just can get any bigger.  As one Republican recently said on CNN that went totally unchallenged, “We all know that only businesses create jobs, not government.”  They are oblivious to what happened from 1929 till 1945 as the government spending created almost all the jobs because businesses could not stimulate demand on their own.  Almost all economists recommend deficit spending right now, with a long term plan to deal with the deficit when the economy is back on its feet.

Finally I would like to leave you with a letter that was in the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday that kind of puts the whole Republican tax cut strategy into perspective (short term, painless, benefits the wealthy, and is ineffective):

“A comment on a blog included a long list of what a tax cut cannot do:  A tax cut cannot provide police protection.  A tax cut cannot provide a fire department.  A tax cut cannot build a road.  A tax cut cannot provide Social Security and Medicare.  A tax cut cannot provide care for the disabled and other vulnerable members of our society.  A tax cut cannot create city parks or preserve areas of our country’s natural beauty.  A tax cut cannot build schools or hospitals…and the list goes on.

As George Lakoff, professor of linguistics, suggested, we need to reframe the word “taxes” to take away the negative connotation.  Taxes are the dues we pay to live in a civilized society, one that does not feed selfish greed but cares for our children’s future, for those less fortunate and for the common good.”  Adeline Hope, Berkley, CA

The Republicans and their ideology are living in another time, still believing the Reagan Myth (which is a myth of giant porportions since he grew both the size of government and size of deficits), and Hoover economics which requires no sacrifice or long term plan but then miserably failed.  It is a strategy, as it was in the early 1930s, for total failure.  It appeals to the masses because it asks nothing of them, which is its appeal, while transferring wealth to the wealthy which simply makes things worse.  Haven’t we had enough?  Have we learned nothing?