Even More Main Stream Media Idiotocracy On Display

[TampaYankee]

They just keep on giving. This has gotten well past embarrassing. Here is Woodward's misstep...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/25/sequester-david-brooks-bob-woodward_n_2759600.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

IMO, this biased reporting has been going on for 18 months. It is based on the Press' buy-in to the fact that Deficits are the nation's biggest problem and pending doom. While this is a real and significant issue for the medium to long term, it is not the biggest issue in the near term -- jobs and economic recovery is.

The Press has bought in to the GOP austerity meme almost exclusively while giving much less 'air-time' to the importance of getting the economy moving through government action on infrastructure renewal and education refurbishment, and restaffing teachers police and fire at the local level.

Everybody needs to understand one thing. The main goal of the GOP is to cut government as much as possible and that include whatever it can save defense and corporate welfare programs. That means Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, Food Stamps, Education programs including loans... the list goes on. Will they admit to this? Some will, most will couch it in better alternatives like Ryan's Medicare Voucher which achieves the same goal over time without the GOP being found standing over the bloody body with knife in hand.

The plan is simple: distract them with money in hand, even though it is drastically insufficient to meet the cost of present Medicare service, throw them in an insurance pool which tries to avoid the infirm and charges premium prices, let the gov't contribution shrink with inflation over the years so that it's remaining cost to the government shrinks to inconsequential. That allows tax rates to drop even lower on the upper once percent. That is the game plan in a nut shell.

Sure, we have a deficit that is in critical need of fixing but it is not today's burning problem. Jobs and the economy are. Forsaking austerity now and seeking real budgetary reform in the long term is the sane game for those without an ideological agenda.

In typical fashion the Press follows the heat and controversy over the light and sound policy discussion. Very few overlook the shiny object in favor of the gem-in-the-rough that provides the real value to the discussion.

If you wish to read a sane and very knowlegable head with his feet on the ground read and watch Ezra Klein of the WAPO every where you can. He is a straight shooter with real facts at his disposal.

[Guest EXPAT]

The world of blogging has created a bunch of "questionable sources" that aren't being scrutinized. it truly is embarrassing. But it's also dangerous because there is a huge subset of the population that will believe any soundbite with out any review of the real facts. Very scary indeed.

[TampaYankee]

The world of blogging has created a bunch of "questionable sources" that aren't being scrutinized. it truly is embarrassing. But it's also dangerous because there is a huge subset of the population that will believe any soundbite with out any review of the real facts. Very scary indeed.

I'm prepared to weather the crazy bloggers out there. Both sides have them. What I wasn't prepared for was that the MSM would follow them, or their talking head politicians, down the Mad Hatter Hole without a clue how clueless they are. We are talking big name journalist types: Friedman, Brooks and Woodward to scratch the top of the iceberg. On the positive side, there are some in the press starting to push back against this selective ignorance at best and bias at worst.

There is something even more frightening than the fact that so many are willing to believe this garbage. That is the millions of people who do not believe that these wackos and mainstream GOP party men really mean what they say. I have a friend who did not believe that the Romney would really enact all those policies he and the GOP promised. He remained convinced that it didn't matter who was elected, things would pretty much go on the same with whoever it was. That went for the Congressional level too. This is scary when people feel that campaign words have no consequence. I can see how that might have not been too far off the mark 30 or 50 years ago, but the differences are too stark now.

I was very disturbed the last few years about the politics and campaigns and how that was being taken by the electorate. I couldn't tell from reading the news, looking at polls, watching discussions. I coudn't understand how the majority could believe all of the fiction, lies and half-truths that were spread by politicians and cable news. Who really believes a Steve King or Bachmann, or Louie Gohmert? Yet there they are and the keep getting sent back. Does that mean some majority actually believes them? OMG! If that can happen what is the nation believing. I couldn't tell but I couldn't believe an actual majority would believe that crap. In the end, the swing electorate didn't take leave of their senses and sent Romney packing.

For the rest of the people sometimes the voters have to learn lessons the hard way. Examples are found in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and Pennsylvania which saw Republican landslides in 2010. They have been living with the consequences since.