Media Stimulus Coverage A Complete Embarrassment

[devilgrrl]

And here is a nice litany of their accomplishments:

In a debate over the economy, the media pointedly eschewed the insight of actual economists.
Media Matters crunched the numbers and found that actual economists got 5% of the newshole share. Instead, we got plenty of airtime given to inept and ignorant people like Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson, who doesn't know the difference between education policy and school construction. Oh, and political strategists! Yeah, I wonder what the fourteenth GOP strategist is going to say about the stimulus package! Surely it will be different from the other thirteen!

Non-existent reports took center stage
In the third week of January, the media became transfixed with a CBO report that warned that the stimulus package wasn't going to spend out fast enough to be stimulative, "showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won't be spent until after 2010." Terrible, I know! Only that CBO report DID NOT EXIST. I mean, think about this: a whole lot of people reported on something -- claimed to have read something -- that they could not have possibly seen with their own eyes! Would you like to know what grades I got in college when I turned in work based on a bunch of sources I had made up? Well, I wouldn't know, actually, because I am not a complete fraud, but I imagine I would have gotten F's!

A forest of New Deal debunkery
Oh, so the New Deal didn't work? Could've fooled me! Could've fooled math! Could've fooled reality!

Fearmongering on health care IT
Here, the press did an okay job -- but Betsy McCaughey, author of a debunked, derided, and disowned piece of balderdash on the Clinton health care plan, should never have been able to get near a newsroom without anyone noticing the fetid stench of incompetence and flimflammery.

These are just a few of the lowlights I'd hold out for a little added dose of contempt. MediaMatters has put together a video that takes an even deeper dive into the dark heart of the press' pathetic display -- I had forgotten about how so many people fell all over themselves reporting on a $2-4 billion dollar windfall for ACORN that was non-existent. Watch and heed, because I don't expect the coverage of the bank bailout or the housing plan to be any better!

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/17/media-stimulus-coverage-a_n_167617.html

[FiveGoodMen]

1. K&R

[Fly by night]

2. Thanks, devilgrrl. Boy howdy, we need a non-corpulent media ASAP.

K&R

PS: Thanks again for your "give a heart" thread this weekend. Mighty nice of ya'.

[gratuitous]

3. A disgrace AND an embarrassment

The coverage has been nothing short of appalling. Every two-bit crank with an axe to grind has been given free play on show after show, and any substantive discussion about what's actually in the bill has been glossed over, drowned out in the shouting, or obscured by the bilious soup of fog assiduously produced by the GOP. If the Republicans spent even half the energy they waste on fucking up the process in more productive avenues, the country (and their party) would be in far better shape. Now, I don't give a happy rat's ass about the fortunes of the Republican party, but you'd think they would be, and align their interests a little more closely to the interests of the country.

[devilgrrl]

4. kick

There's a Chuck Todd thread, hopefully they'll see this.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, devilgrrl.:thumbsup:

[Enthusiast]

6. K&R! No one should

wonder for one moment why support for the stimulus bill has lost momentum with the public. I was disgusted by the one sided corporate media's coverage. Again, the media is our greatest challenge.

[Downtown Hound]

7. Amen!