The Washington Post's publication of a "news" article written by an organization created to advance an ideological agenda is a troubling reminder of the declining ethical standards at one of the nation's most influential newspapers. The article, headlined "Support Grows for Tackling Nation's Debt" (12/31/09), was a product of the Fiscal Times, described in an accompanying note as "an independent digital news publication reporting on fiscal, budgetary, healthcare and international economics issues." More accurately, it's a propaganda outlet created and funded by Peter G. Peterson, a Wall Street billionaire and Nixon administration cabinet member who has long used his wealth [...]
Jan
06
2010
Washington Post Lets Lobbyists Write Its Stories
Anti-Social Security outfit does propaganda, not journalism
Sep
19
2008
James Galbraith on financial turmoil, Forrest Hylton on Bolivia crisis
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Unlike tendentious media debates about government aid to the poor, journalists greeted bail outs of major financial corporations with almost universal approval. We'll talk to economist James Galbraith of the University of Texas about what the news means for regulatory policy and issues such as GOP plans to invest Social Security funds on Wall Street. Also on the show: Headlines from Bolivia speak of violence and possible conciliation but even after reading the reports you might be unclear on who's fighting and over what. Is it really half the country against the other half [...]
Oct
22
2007
Milbank Defends Post Column
Piece blended Social Security, Medicare problems
After FAIR's October 19 action alert criticized coverage of Social Security in the Washington Post and on ABC News, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank responded to one FAIR activist with this message: Don't you think it a bit unfair of "FAIR," in complaining about my "context," to ignore the fact that I was writing about the combined impact of Medicare and Social Security? While most of Milbank's column (10/16/07) obviously concerned Social Security (the headline "Smile, Smile--You're on Social Security!" was no accident), he did link the Social Security and Medicare programs in explaining how baby boomers would "begin to [...]
Oct
19
2007
Social Security Scaremongering
ABC, Washington Post push well-worn 'crisis' myths
When the first baby boomer filed for Social Security, ABC News and the Washington Post's Dana Milbank led the pack in media scaremongering--pushing the widely disputed myth of a pending crisis while dismissing the less alarmist views espoused by many economists. At the top of ABC's October 15 World News with Charles Gibson, the anchor declared this a "day of reckoning," later calling it "one of this country's greatest challenges." Correspondent David Wright called the first baby boomer filing for benefits "the raindrop that's about to become a tsunami," and warned that "paying for the baby boom's retirement may leave [...]
Oct
05
2007
Cynthia Boaz on Burma, Dean Baker on Social Security
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: what's going on in Burma? Besides violent crackdowns by the country's military dictatorship, which are covered in the U.S. press, you'd be hard pressed to know that the non-violent, pro-democracy movement there has been organizing for years. We'll talk to Professor Cynthia Boaz, a professor at SUNY Brockport and academic advisor to the International Center on Non-Violent Conflict about Burma and press. Also on the show: none other than the Maestro, former Fed chair Alan Greenspan, has stated that Social Security does not face a looming crisis. Normally his word is gospel with the [...]
Jan
05
2007
Best of CounterSpin 2006
Download MP3 On this special Best of CounterSpin, program we look back over some of what was news for the mainstream media in 2006—and some of what wasn't news, but should've been. Our guests this year included a range of activists, researchers and journalists—all of whom had an angle on events that we thought worth hearing and, more often than not, one you weren't hearing many other places. Whether the issue was medicare or immigration, Wal-Mart or welfare policy, each in his or her way reminded us of the need to see beyond the narrow, often distorted dialog provided by [...]
May
06
2005
Dean Baker on Social Security, Rory O'Connor on CPB
Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: The debate over Social Security privatization will be heating up again now that George W. Bush is endorsing a specific proposal. Are the media sorting out the truth about Bush's push for so-called progressive indexation? Does the math really show that Bush is, as one New York Times column put it, Robin Hood? We'll get the details from Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Also on the show: The conservative cat seems to be further out of the bag at CPB. Now PBS president Pat Mitchell is being criticized [...]
Apr
01
2005
CBS's Pro-Privatization Predictions
By Peter Hart
CBS Evening News has presented two segments in recent weeks (2/9/05, 3/4/05) that purport to show how typical American workers would fare under George W. Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. But the segments rely on stock market projections that, if true, would make any "crisis" in Social Security almost impossible. CBS reporter Jim Axelrod first profiled (2/9/05) Jama Whitesell, a 28-year-old receptionist making $32,000 a year. Axelrod went to a financial planner who predicted that a private account would be a safe bet for this worker--based on a projected 8 percent return on the private account. Why did CBS [...]
