When reporters give strategic advice, they tend to reveal what they consider preferable policy goals. It’s one of the clearest examples of how media “bias” actually works. During a discussion of taxes and spending on Meet the Press (1/27/13), host David Gregory said this:
The question…is where the president tries to seek a way forward. I mean, he doesn’t think much of Republicans in terms of their approach or being able to deal with them. But he can also confuse the opposition a little bit if he would take the reins and say, “Look, we are going to have to do big spending cuts and here’s why. It’s ultimately helpful for the solvency of the country,” even if he has to push back against some Democrats.
That soundbite reveals a lot about Gregory’s worldview. For starters, Obama’s early move after re-election should be to do something Republicans want, not the people who voted for him. The country needs “big” cuts to spending because that would help “the solvency of the country.”
None of this makes much economic sense; there’s little to no evidence that dramatic spending cuts would do much to help anything at all. But journalists have a special fondness for advising Democrats to move right, mostly for its own sake. In their world, a Democrat is at his/her best when they defy their party, and the country would be better off the government started slashing spending.
Gregory’s not alone. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough recently hosted liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who has been arguing for some time that focusing on deficits is precisely the wrong policy to turn the economy around, and that spending cuts would make things worse, not better. This bothers Scarborough; he didn’t have much to say to Krugman directly, but he wrote a column for Politico (1/28/13) headlined “Paul Krugman vs. the World.” He argues that Krugman’s view “runs counter to conventional wisdom across the Western world,” and perhaps most importantly, “counter to what I have been saying in Congress and in the media since 1994.”
“I did my best to give him space,” Scarborough writes–how generous of him!–but others were nonetheless outraged by what they heard. People that Scarborough knows well, like former diplomat Richard Haass, former Joint Chief chairman Michael Mullen, banker and Clinton Democrat Erskine Bowles and even Scarborough’s co-host Mika Brzezinski.
That’s an impressive list of…well, people who aren’t economists, and have not demonstrated any particular expertise or prescience when it comes to the issues being debated. They are, though, well-established members of a political-media establishment that pushes for cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicare in order to keep taxes on corporations and the wealthy low.
That’s their worldview; and, just like Gregory counsels Obama to move to the right, people who see things differently are the ones who have a point of view that is outside what they think is the consensus.
To be fair to Scarborough, he also cites Steve Rattner–who has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Rattner
He used that degree to become chief economics correspondent of the New York Times, and used that as a stepping stone to become an investment banker at Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley etc. In Scarborough’s world, these credentials matter far more than having literally written the textbook for Macroeconomics 101.
Hasn’t Obama already followed Gregory’s advice?
The problem I find with the Majority of those in the media, is this supposed mantra of ‘I am the voice of the people’, even if they have to use their own voice, their own words, and their own choice.
They are the “knights of old” who were supposed to be the peoples champions, and ended up being the peoples masters, they are supposed to protect the people, and since ‘they are the people’, protecting themselves in their mind, is protecting you and I.
I hate David Gregory!
What it really shows is how unqualified Mr. Gregory is to do anything but read prepared text.
David Gregory doesn’t realize that Obama has already “tricked” Republicans by being one.
Well, maybe he hasn’t tricked the Republicans, but he has tricked some people into believing that he was a Democrat, a liberal, and a genius that plays three dimensional chess, but just isn’t very good at negotiating.
David Gregory should trick all of us by telling the truth once in awhile, instead of telling us entertaining stories and personal fantasies.
There is no evidence that spending cuts would help(what moron believes that)?Does that mean that there is nothing wrong with spending ,printing,and borrowing money until the stars burn from the sky?Of course we need…nay must cut all three of those things or we will no longer exist as a country.Non sustainable is the only word you need know.The fact that Obama is incapable ideologically from accomplishing any meaningful cuts leads any thinking person from questioning his re-election..But then his re-election had nothing to do what so ever with the state of the country.The state is horrible and deteriorating.Without a budget(against the constitution)or even a salient idea of how to make anything better.His sole brainstorm has been to tax the rich at a higher level.That will buy the government 7 days and 3 hours.Hip hip hooray for liberal brain power.
Gregory says, “Look, we are going to have to do big spending cuts and here’s why. It’s ultimately helpful for the solvency of the country,”
Hmm. I wonder if he was referring to cuts to defense and corporate welfare? Na.
David Gregory attended American University. I’m wondering if he spent a lot of time on the part of that campus that was used for chemical weapons testing by the US military. (appropriately nicknamed “Camp Leach”)
What planet is Gregory on? Republicans would hardly be caught off
guard this way. Obama has tried this trick (adopting right-wing
policies) so many times that they surely expect it by now.
Gregory is one of the worst hacks on television currently. Immediately after the election, he suggested that the President should bring Mitt Romney into his cabinet, I guess to show Business he was serious about working with them. He regularly suggests that the President should do what Republicans want, whether or not it’s good for the country. Jeff Thompson is correct – Obama is already a center-Republican, and is doing everything he can to keep Republicans happy.
Deelemon
Are you trying to say that anything…..and i do mean “anything”- that the Dems have done these last 5 years has worked?A total ,complete,unmitigated disaster.So to say that republicans could of done worse- is a stretch,and a blatant lie. We are exactly where the republicans said we would be when the prognosticated what a liberal obama administration would do to the country(and I am no republican).The red states/cities do better, and the blue states/cities follow Obama down down down.It was all so predictable.And get this…….They voted him back in for 4 more years!!!!
f11455
s1647
q8750
Question asked in 2018 by student in history class studying this period:
“David who?”