http://www.thenation.com/blog/157543/leaving-people-out-debate"Occasionally you see pictures and they're standing in some long line or applying for jobs, but they're not thought of," said GRITtv guest Edrie Irvine recently, speaking of unemployed people like her.
It's not just the unemployed we don't tend to see on US TV. Take public workers. They're in the news every day, but it's not actually them. It's people talking about them. Politicians, pundits and propagandists targeted them for cuts and layoffs. But public workers themselves are barely in the conversation.
We're having a huge national debate about cutting public workers' jobs and pay—without talking to most of the players. There may be an anonymous source, sharing an anecdote about how selfish and overpaid his fellows are, but apart from that, we're letting a few decide who gets paid and who doesn't, and Americans who are neither public workers nor politicians are in a fix: we're supposed to decide which wars, or budgets, or taxes to support, without ever hearing from and getting to know the people who are most affected by our decisions.
It's not just the news, either. While reality shows showcase Real Housewives of Rich Counties, when was the last time you saw a working-class family in a sitcom?
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