Dean Baker cuts through the media spin on the "fiscal cliff" and Social Security cuts. And is the hit Showtime drama "Homeland" a deeply Islamophobic show? Laila Al-Arian joins us to discuss her recent piece for Salon.com.
Search Results for: Dean Baker
Dec
13
2012
Robin Hood Isn't News
Wall Street Transaction Tax Missing from 'Cliff' Coverage
We're told that the "fiscal cliff" requires spending cuts and more revenue. But there's a simple way to get more tax dollars-- a small "Robin Hood" tax on financial transactions. So why won't the press talk about it?
Oct
01
2012
Guide to Election Coverage 2012
Tropes, tricks and tics of campaign journalism
Every four years, U.S. media spend untold time and energy covering the presidential campaign. And every election cycle there are certain media themes that keep coming back. Extra! has compiled a guide to the most popular recurring tropes, as well as some new additions to keep an eye on in 2012. Candidate Caricatures In 2008, journalists gave us McCain the maverick vs. Obama the snob (Extra!, 5–6/08, 7–8/08): easily digestible caricatures that the candidates’ every action could be forced into. It didn’t matter that McCain toed the party line more than your average Republican, or that Obama’s middle-class, community activist [...]
Aug
14
2012
The Media's Favorite 'Wonk'
Paul Ryan according to Beltway media
Mitt Romney's choice of Rep. Paul Ryan as his Republican running mate has unleashed yet another torrent of fawning coverage touting Ryan's intelligence and bravery for advocating a fiscal plan of massive government spending cuts and massive tax breaks for the wealthy.
Jun
01
2012
The 'Printing Money' Phobia
Monetary stimulus as crime against nature
If you oppose the idea of restoring the economy by expanding the monetary supply (Extra!, 2/12), you have a ready rejoinder: You can accuse the government of “printing money.” Washington Post columnist George Will (5/9/12) chided, “An axiom of scarcity is understood by people not warped by working for the federal government, which can print money when it wearies of borrowing it.” Investor’s Business Daily’s Mike Getlin (4/25/12) dismissed signs of economic recovery, writing, “The problem is that these improvements are not built on actual wealth invested in these markets, but on printed money created from thin air.” “Whatever restraint [...]
Jun
01
2012
The Great British Mistake
Where are the retractions from austerity enthusiasts
When the Conservative-led government in Britain announced a budget plan in 2010 based on dramatic austerity measures designed to lower that country’s budget deficit, the news was greeted by many U.S.-based pundits with enthusiasm: Finally, a major economy was going to apply the sort of medicine that Very Serious People agreed was needed. The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman (5/9/10) quoted Economist editor John Micklethwait as saying the British vote of 2010 was the first Western election “based on pain”—and it’s hard not to feel Friedman was taking pleasure in the London-based Financial Times’ declaration (4/26/10) that “the next government [...]
May
01
2012
Soundbites
When Kids Die, War Is the Real Victim When a U.S. staff sergeant was accused of killing 16 civilians in an Afghan village, nine of them children, corporate media treated it as a crisis—for the war and those waging it. The massacre was “a public relations headache” (AP, 3/12/12) and “a public relations disaster” (Reuters, 3/12/12). “Killings Threaten Afghan Mission” (3/12/12) was a USA Today headline; the NPR website labeled its reports “Killings a Blow to U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan” (3/13/12) and “Afghan Shootings Could Complicate U.S. Mission” (3/12/12). The New York Times (3/12/12) talked about “a feeling of siege [...]
Feb
01
2012
Ignoring Monetary Stimulus as Economic Policy
U.S. media offer austerity as nonsensical solution
With the United States now years into a crippling economic downturn, and Europe facing a looming economic crisis, media have been covering the economy more than any other issue. The two most recent annual reports on U.S. media coverage from the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism (2009-10) conclude that “the No. 1 story of the year was the weakened state of the U.S. economy.” Despite this enormous amount of coverage, corporate media present only a narrow range of possible policy prescriptions for the economic crisis. While reducing entitlement spending and otherwise cutting the deficit tend to worsen economic downturns, [...]
