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WilliamPitt
WilliamPitt's Journal
WilliamPitt's Journal
December 1, 2012
By Michael Grunwald
Nov. 30, 2012
Its really amazing to see political reporters dutifully passing along Republican complaints that President Obamas opening offer in the fiscal cliff talks is just a recycled version of his old plan, when those same reporters spent the last year dutifully passing along Republican complaints that Obama had no plan. Its even more amazing to see them pass along Republican outrage that Obama isnt cutting Medicare enough, in the same matter-of-fact tone they used during the campaign to pass along Republican outrage that Obama was cutting Medicare.
This isnt just cognitive dissonance. Its irresponsible reporting. Mainstream media outlets dont want to look partisan, so they ignore the BS hidden in plain sight, the hypocrisy and dishonesty that defines the modern Republican Party. Im old enough to remember when Republicans insisted that anyone who said they wanted to cut Medicare was a demagogue, because Im more than three weeks old.
Ive written a lot about the GOPs defiance of realityits denial of climate science, its simultaneous denunciations of Medicare cuts and government health care, its insistence that debt-exploding tax cuts will somehow reduce the debtso I often get accused of partisanship. But its simply a fact that Republicans controlled Washington during the fiscally irresponsible era when President Clintons budget surpluses were transformed into the trillion-dollar deficit that President Bush bequeathed to President Obama. (The deficit is now shrinking.) Its simply a fact that the fiscal cliff was created in response to GOP threats to force the U.S. government to default on its obligations. The press cant figure out how to weave those facts into the current narrative without sounding like its taking sides, so it simply pretends that yesterday never happened.
(snip)
Whatever. I realize that the GOPs up-is-downism puts news reporters in an awkward position. It would seem tendentious to point out Republican hypocrisy on deficits and Medicare and stimulus every time it comes up, because these days it comes up almost every time a Republican leader opens his mouth. But were not supposed to be stenographers. As long as the media let an entire political party invent a new reality every day, it will keep on doing it. Every day.
The rest: http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/30/fiscal-cliff-fictions-lets-all-agree-to-pretend-the-gop-isnt-full-of-it/
One reporter gets it.
Fiscal Cliff Fictions: Lets All Agree to Pretend the GOP Isnt Full of ItBy Michael Grunwald
Nov. 30, 2012
Its really amazing to see political reporters dutifully passing along Republican complaints that President Obamas opening offer in the fiscal cliff talks is just a recycled version of his old plan, when those same reporters spent the last year dutifully passing along Republican complaints that Obama had no plan. Its even more amazing to see them pass along Republican outrage that Obama isnt cutting Medicare enough, in the same matter-of-fact tone they used during the campaign to pass along Republican outrage that Obama was cutting Medicare.
This isnt just cognitive dissonance. Its irresponsible reporting. Mainstream media outlets dont want to look partisan, so they ignore the BS hidden in plain sight, the hypocrisy and dishonesty that defines the modern Republican Party. Im old enough to remember when Republicans insisted that anyone who said they wanted to cut Medicare was a demagogue, because Im more than three weeks old.
Ive written a lot about the GOPs defiance of realityits denial of climate science, its simultaneous denunciations of Medicare cuts and government health care, its insistence that debt-exploding tax cuts will somehow reduce the debtso I often get accused of partisanship. But its simply a fact that Republicans controlled Washington during the fiscally irresponsible era when President Clintons budget surpluses were transformed into the trillion-dollar deficit that President Bush bequeathed to President Obama. (The deficit is now shrinking.) Its simply a fact that the fiscal cliff was created in response to GOP threats to force the U.S. government to default on its obligations. The press cant figure out how to weave those facts into the current narrative without sounding like its taking sides, so it simply pretends that yesterday never happened.
(snip)
Whatever. I realize that the GOPs up-is-downism puts news reporters in an awkward position. It would seem tendentious to point out Republican hypocrisy on deficits and Medicare and stimulus every time it comes up, because these days it comes up almost every time a Republican leader opens his mouth. But were not supposed to be stenographers. As long as the media let an entire political party invent a new reality every day, it will keep on doing it. Every day.
The rest: http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/30/fiscal-cliff-fictions-lets-all-agree-to-pretend-the-gop-isnt-full-of-it/
Profile Information
Name: William Rivers PittGender: Male
Hometown: Boston
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 58,179