The BBC Dismisses a Real Greek Economist as a Sexy “Ideologue”
The BBC Dismisses a Real Greek Economist as a Sexy Ideologue
William Black
By Bill Black, the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Originally published at New Economic Perspectives
In its web version, the BBC News has you click on a tease titled Yanis Varoufakis, charismatic ideologue to access a story dated February 13, 2015 entitled Profile: Yanis Varoufakis, Greek bailout foe. Neither the tease nor the title make any sense. Varoufakis is the Greek finance minister. Except, of course, were reading this in the BBC, so the description actually reads Greeces left-wing Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. Funny, the BBC never describes the head of the ECB as the ultra-right-wing economist Mario Draghi or Jeroen Dijsselloem, the Dutch Finance Minister and troika hit man as the ultra-ultra-right-wing non-economist.
The BBC profile is not unremittingly hostile to Varoufakis it simply refuses to take him seriously. Varoufakis is a highly competent academic economist. His policy views have proven correct, as even the BBC (back-handedly) concedes by calling him Greeces Cassandra. So why does the BBC treat Varoufakis as a sexy leftist and Dijsselboem as the respected spokesperson for the troika even though Dijsselboem is a fanatic ideologue who has caused massive human misery because of the intersection of his inflexible ideology and economic incompetence?
Varoufakis views on the self-destructive nature of austerity as a response to the Great Recession are mainstream economic views. He certainly is a leftist, but his policy views arise from different ideological traditions most people would find antagonistic. That makes him a non-ideologue as the term is defined. The troika, by contrast, is led entirely by ideologues. The primary difference is that they are exceptionally bad economists and exceptionally indifferent to the human misery they inflict on the workers of the periphery that they despise and ridicule. The BBC, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal will never write a profile of the troikas leadership that makes any of these points. The BBC profile is another example of what I call revealed biases. Journalists and media organs routinely reveal and betray their biases biases that they hotly deny but rarely escape.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/bill-black-bbc-dismisses-real-greek-economist-sexy-ideologue.html
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)SunSeeker
(51,664 posts)That pretty much describes all economists pushing austerity aimed at low wage workers during a recession.
swilton
(5,069 posts)TRNN many times.
potone
(1,701 posts)They dismiss his considerable qualifications and focus on his clothes and motorcycle. But he is a well-respected economist who is willing to stand up to the austerity crowd in defense of his country's economy and democracy. They ridicule him because they are scared of him and the movement that he represents. I say, "bravo Syriza, bravo Tsipras, bravo Varoufakis and bravo Greece!"
uhnope
(6,419 posts)he's asking for