Today the New York Times (1/18/11) reports a big scoop. A "Tea Party commission" convened by Freedom Works is set to announce its crowd-sourced $6 trillion debt reduction plan–"A copy of the preliminary findings was provided to the New York Times," Kate Zernike reports. The story's second paragraph critiques the plan from the right for not doing enough about Social Security and Medicare, which Zernike asserts "are two of the biggest contributors to the nation's deficit." This is not true, especially when it comes to Social Security–but corporate media prefer to have discussions of the deficit that bash Social Security. [...]
Oct
18
2011
Tea Party Makes News–Even With Nonsense
Filed Under: Budget, Media Criticism, New York Times, Social Security Tagged With: Kate Zernike, People's Budget, Tea Party
Sep
19
2011
Rick Perry, Social Security Straight Shooter?
A Washington Post story onSunday (9/18/11)argues that many recipients of Social Security aren't really paying attention to what the GOP presidential front-runners are saying about Social Security. The real story, then, is what kind of narrative the candidates are trying to establish. As reporter Amy Gardner puts it: In many ways, it doesn't matter to the candidates whether people are attuned to what they are actually saying about Social Security. For them, the issue is instead serving as a proxy for the narrative each is trying to establish about himself. For Perry, standing by his brash statements on Social Security–he [...]
Filed Under: Election, Social Security Tagged With: Amy Gardner, Rick Perry
Sep
09
2011
What Do You Call a Guy Like Rick Perry?
Frontrunner-of-the-moment Rick Perry is getting a lot of press for his performance at the recent Republican debate–especially because he's standing by his belief that Social Security is a "monstrous lie" and a Ponzi scheme, and that climate change is an untested theory advanced by corrupt, discredited scientists. You can call such ideas a lot of things. "False" or "untrue," for example, would work. But a lot of reporters characterized Perry's performance in positive terms. In today's New York Times (9/9/11), Michael Shear writes that Perry made clear in his first national appearance that he would campaign as an unabashed Southern [...]
Filed Under: Climate Change, Election, Media Criticism, Social Security Tagged With: Andrea Mitchell, debate, Michael Shear, Rick Perry, Ruth Marcus
Aug
10
2011
WaPo Misleads on Dem's 'Super Committee' Picks
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has named his picks to the "super committee" charged with making deficit reduction recommendations. Reid named Washington Sen. Patty Murray and center-right Max Baucus, who the Post's Rosalind Helderman today (8/10/11) calls a "natural choice," given that he chairs the Finance Committee. The New York Times is a little more helpful, pointing out that Baucus broke with other Democrats and supported tax cuts enacted in 2001 under President George W. Bush. He also worked with Republicans in 2003 to pass legislation that added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. This is important for anyone who [...]
Filed Under: Budget, Social Security, Washington Post Tagged With: Harry Reid, John Kerry, Max Baucus, Medicare, supercommittee
Aug
10
2011
Barney Frank Questions the Questions at NPR
It's an article of faith in mainstream media discussions of the budget: Social Security and Medicare are the "entitlements" driving our debt problems. That's not really true, but that's overwhelmingly the starting point for these discussions. Occasionally, perhaps by accident, someone questions that assumption. That's what happened on NPR's Morning Edition on Monday (8/8/11), when Rep. Barney Frank (D.-Mass.) was interviewed by Steve Inskeep about, among other things, the entitlement burden. Read what happened–or listen to the excerpt below: INSKEEP: Congressman, if I can, we've just got a few seconds. You have mentioned defense spending. You've mentioned tax increases. Those [...]
Filed Under: Budget, Healthcare, NPR, Social Security Tagged With: Barney Frank, Medicare, Steve Inskeep
Aug
02
2011
Action Alert: David Gregory Misinforms on Social Security
Amid tough competition from his corporate media colleagues, Meet the Press host David Gregory has stood out as a journalist who has consistently misinformed the public about the impact of Social Security and other entitlement programs on the deficit. To find out how he's been wrong and to tell him to correct his errors, see FAIR latest Action Alert. Please use the comments thread of this blog post to leave copies of your messages, or to discuss the alert.
Filed Under: Media Criticism, NBC, Social Security Tagged With: David Gregory
Aug
02
2011
Debt Ceilings and the 'Balance' Bias
There's been plenty written about how reporters skew reality by treating "both sides" as equally intransigent or inflexible when it comes to the budget deficit battle. Another example, from the L.A. Times today (8/2/11): For Republicans, it was preventing any tax increase to upper-income families. For Democrats, it was ensuring no cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and a handful of other programs that aid the elderly and the poor. And for Obama, it was getting a deal that would end the threat of an economy-shaking default until after the 2012 presidential election. None of the key players was willing to [...]
Filed Under: Budget, L.A. Times, NBC, Social Security Tagged With: Andrea Mitchell, Brian Williams
Jul
29
2011
Robert Samuelson: We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is Old
When your column is headlined "It's the Elderly, Stupid," I guess readers should know what to expect. Robert Samuelson delivers in today's Washington Post (a column that will appear elsewhere around the country, unfortunately), in a nasty diatribe about the kind of debt debate he thinks the country should be having–one that blames older people: Older Americans do not intend to ruin America, but as a group, that's what they're about. On average, the federal government supports each American 65 and over by about $26,000 a year (about $14,000 through Social Security, $12,000 through Medicare). At 65, the average American [...]
Filed Under: Budget, Media Criticism, Social Security, Washington Post Tagged With: elderly, Robert Samuelson
Jul
15
2011
The Brave World of Boehner/Obama Bipartisanship
Media love the "middle" in politics–where leaders of the two major parties come together to find common ground, renew the national spirit and/or live up to the ideals of the Founders. Time magazine (7/14/11) has a soppy piece about Barack Obama and Republican leader John Boehner's attempt to reach a budget deal. Those efforts–some of which happened in secret–are, according to reporters Jay Newton-Small and Michael Scherer, the story of two self-described dealmakers in a town where dealing is often a synonym for surrender, who ran up against the limits of their roles, their powers and their colleagues. Boehner and [...]
Filed Under: Barack Obama, Budget, Social Security, Time Tagged With: debt ceiling, Jay Newton-Small, John Boehner, Michael Scherer
Jun
17
2011
NYT Quotes a Social Security Defender, Only Bashes Him Indirectly
A New York Times piece (6/17/11) on Social Security actually quotes a defender of Social Security–but as that source notes, "the context looks designed to refute me." In a story about the AARP suggesting that maybe Social Security benefits will have to be cut, the Times' Erich Lichtblau writes: But other advocacy groups that are pushing to preserve Social Security benefits accused AARP of effectively abandoning its core constituency. Doug Henwood, the Brooklyn editor of a liberal business blog and Internet radio program who has written on Social Security, said AARP's willingness to consider cuts in benefits "reads like a [...]
Filed Under: New York Times, Social Security Tagged With: Doug Henwood, Eric Lichtblau
Mar
25
2011
WaPo Invents Dems' Social Security Split
The Washington Post's Lori Montgomery has what sounds like a pretty important story in today's paper (3/25/11). Theheadline: Democrats Splinter Over Strategy for Reducing Deficit Battle Lines Drawn as More Are Willing to Put Entitlements on Table The piece leads off: Democrats are sharply divided over whether to tackle popular but increasingly expensive safety-net programs for the elderly, particularly Social Security. According to Montgomery, a "growing number of Democratic lawmakers say they are willing to consider controversial measures such as raising the retirement age and reducing benefits for wealthier seniors." That wouldbebig. Who are they? She tells us who they [...]
Filed Under: Social Security, Washington Post Tagged With: Dean Baker, Lori Montgomery
Feb
18
2011
Chris Christie's Not Telling the Truth–Ugly or Otherwise
New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie is the object of intense devotion among some on the right (Glenn Beck in particular). No surprise, then, that he'd get a lot of attention for going to Washington and delivering a stern lecture about how to fix the deficit. And no surprise that he'd talk about Social Security. It has nothing to do with the deficit, but that's another matter. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank was on hand to cheer on Christie's message (2/16/11). Christie pokes fun at his weight, which apparently makes his truth-telling even more appealing: But his physique also works [...]
Filed Under: Social Security, Washington Post Tagged With: Chris Christie, Dana Milbank, Matthew Yglesias, Robert Reich
Feb
14
2011
USA Today's 'Nonpartisan Experts' Agree: Obama Not Tough Enough on Elderly, Poor
The subhead sums up the point of USA Today's lead story today (2/14/11) about Barack Obama's budget proposal: Obama Proposes Cuts to Trim Deficit; GOP, Others Want More The piece by Richard Wolf and Mimi Hall begins, "President Obama will send Congress a 2012 budget today that would trim the budget deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next decade, but Republicans and nonpartisan budget experts are already saying that's not enough." And that's how the story is framed: You've got the White House vs. the Republicans, and "nonpartisan budget experts" who agree with the Republicans. "We're going to make tough [...]
Filed Under: Barack Obama, Economy, Social Security, USA Today Tagged With: Concord Coalition, Economic Policy Institute, John Boehner, Maya MacGuineas, Mimi Hall, Pete Peterson, Richard Wolf, Robert Bixby
