David Sirota: Beware of High Broderism Outbreaks In Your State (HuffPost)

[marmar]

David Sirota

04.29.2007
Beware of High Broderism Outbreaks In Your State (1 comments )

I am just back from my weekend in Montana's Paradise Valley (see the photo I snapped to the right to prove what I said Friday about the fact that if you haven't been there, you haven't lived). Unfortunately, my mental vacation ended before I got home. Over breakfast in pristine Pray, Montana (you Montana readers likely know where I was lucky enough to be), I read this story which is running statewide in Montana and was reminded how quick reporters are to blame Democrats for the downfall of the world, anytime Democrats actually behave in a way that contradicts the media's false archetypes of the two parties. This may be an update to my Montana-specific story earlier this week, but there's no doubt anyone who reads anything about politics in their own state knows this kind of ramrodding of stories into a set, inaccurate frame happens all the time everywhere -- and it must be exposed whenever it occurs.

The story by Mike Dennison -- who is usually a really solid, accurate reporter -- reviews how the Montana legislature closed up shop without a budget, thus forcing a special session sometime in the coming weeks. His piece is the typical, hackneyed review of any legislative crisis, offering up the mind-numbing "pox on both their houses" media harrumphing and stereotypical attacks on Democrats known as "High Broderism," thanks to Washington Post pundit David Broder's mastery of the deceptive craft. Such stories are so tired and so scripted they almost write themselves these days -- even as the actual reporting contradicts the narrative itself. And I'll tell you from my firsthand experience this morning, few things spur indigestion quicker than happily being thousands of miles away from the Beltway and nonetheless finding a local outbreak of High Broderism.

For instance, in the 11th and 12th paragraphs, Dennison correctly notes that Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) and Senate Democrats pushed, among other things, "a $400-per-household tax rebate for Montana homeowners" and that "they upped the ante on the rebate to $600 in the closing days in response to Republican calls for more tax relief." But then in the 13th paragraph, he blames Democrats for having supposedly "tried to shove Republicans' requests aside and expect them to roll over."

Somewhere between the 12th and 13th paragraph, Dennison forgot/decided to ignore that he just wrote that Democrats "respond to Republican calls for more tax relief" by expanding their progressive property tax cut plan. Instead, he went and trampled his own reporting to manufacture the "Democrats are big, bad, bullies abusing power" storyline emanating not only from the whiners at the Montana Republican Party but lately from the whiners at the Republican National Committee, in the face of increased congressional oversight. And, of course, there's not even a single mention in the entire story about what Republicans are really upset about: Democrats plans to make the tax code more progressive and increase tax enforcement on out-of-state corporations -- two things that lobbyists are making sure Republicans will do anything to stop -- even stand up in front of cameras to claim that their moves to force a taxpayer-funded, $38,000-per-day special session is all about protecting taxpayer money.

...(snip)...

Amazingly, flipping a few Billings Gazette pages past Dennison's piece over breakfast this morning, I found this lead editorial from the paper's staunchly conservative editorial board, which notes that "a dissection of this failed session shows that the last clear chance to avoid the train wreck belonged to the House GOP leadership." Unlike Dennison's obligatory and manufactured "pox on both their houses" story, the Gazette accurately points out that Republicans "refused for 10 days to take any action on any of the major spending bills approved by the Senate," ignored "the way the system is supposed to work" and instead held the entire budget hostage in an act of lobbyist-backed brinksmanship all designed to get Democrats to back off their progressive tax cut and tax enforcement plans. How Dennison's story and the Gazette editorial could run in the same paper is, to say the least, hard to fathom.

I want to reiterate, Mike Dennison is a good reporter doing one hell of a hard job. Covering a legislature that moves as fast as a 90-days-every-two-years legislature is forced to move is not easy. But the flaws in his story are very real -- and very indicative of broader inaccurate themes that course through all levels of political journalism. The media almost instinctively looks to past archetypes to explain the present and future. That very recent past has been one where Republican extremism and Democratic weakness was the accepted and unquestioned norm -- and where whatever epithets the GOP spin machine threw out there (in this case, the "bully" nonsense) was digested and regurgitated as factual news. But especially in politics, the past is not automatically the prelude. Democrats here and throughout the country are breaking the old archetype -- and journalists would be wise to consider breaking their stereotyping habits if they have any interest in keeping their readers informed of what's really going on. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/beware-of-high-broderism-_b_47217.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. David Sirota is one of the heroes.