Manufacturing Deficit Fear: On Holding Economic Journalists to Account

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/11-13

Pursuing a plan to kill social security, politicians are relying on a credulous public and compliant media to ramp up debt panic

The conventional wisdom among the current generation of school reformers is that bad teachers are to blame for the failure of many of our children to learn. Applying this logic to the current debates over the budget and the economy, we should be pointing a big finger of blame at the media.

As survey after survey shows, the vast majority of the public are incredibly ignorant of the most basic facts about the budget and the economy. If we treated their teachers in the media the way the educational reformers treat public school teachers, few economics and budget reporters would have jobs.

One needs only to pick up a newspaper or turn on the television to get examples of thoroughly awful reporting. When we hear pledges to reduce the projected deficits over the next 12 years by $2tn or $4tn, how many people have any clue how large these reductions – on which the current debt ceiling talks between President Obama and House speaker John Boehner turn – are, relative to projected spending or projected GDP over this period? (The $4tn figure is 8.7% of projected spending and 3.7% of GDP.)

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interested in which side is winning the argument.
God Forbid, they explain the argument and never
never expect them to call out the Republicans when
the exagerate, or even lie.

They will permit Republicans to say the most outlandish
things make accusations. If the Media is going to correct
they will jump on Democrats with both feet. Not so Republicans

If they do not think the public picks up on this, they are
dreaming. This creates distrust.

But most of all they will cover Casey Anthony and even there
which Reporters explained the Law to the viewers. How many
had prepared the audience by telling them that the Prosecutors
were going in with a week case. Now they have created LAW by
Mob. They have people out there wanting to do physical harm
to Anthony. This does not reflect well on our society. Vigilantes???