There’s an interesting piece by Alexander Bolton in the Hill (8/3/11) that suggests Senate Democrats are frustrated by the Beltway media’s tendency to cover political standoffs between the parties as situations where everyone’s to blame.
Bolton writes:
This frustration boiled over during a Wednesday press conference on the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration and what Democrats call the GOP’s extortionist tactics.
The FAA had to temporarily lay off 4,000 workers because Senate Democrats and Republicans cannot agree to a reauthorization of the agency.
Democrats are angry that members of the media appear to be accepting the GOP argument that Democrats are to blame for the temporary shutdown.
Consider this moment with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and California’s Sen. Barbara Boxer:
“The fact is that you’ve got to dig a little bit behind the surface here of what this is really about,” said Boxer. “Whatever the issue is, this is about government by threats, government by one side making its demands.”
“And these folks falling for it,” Reid interjected, gesturing to the reporters in the Senate radio and television gallery.
The only reporter singled out is Jonathan Karl from ABC:
When Jonathan Karl, a correspondent for ABC News, asked why Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) had blocked a short-term FAA extension offered by Republicans on the Senate floor Tuesday, Democrats lost their patience.
“There’s a certain naivety that comes with your question,” said Boxer. “The story here today is the fact that our leader is reaching out to [House Speaker John] Boehner [R-Ohio] to say, ‘If we want to resolve a particular issue, whatever it might be, let’s talk about it,’ but not have one side say, ‘Take it or leave it or people will be out of work.’ And the essence of your question doesn’t understand that.”
If the criticism is that some reporters “accept GOP arguments,” then Jonathan Karl is one of the strongest examples–see this July Extra! piece about his history of parroting GOP talking points. Or his disgraceful “false balance” report likening Tea Party activists to a USAID administrator’s claim that cuts in humanitarian aid would cause deaths–a conclusion that led Karl to label him a “hothead.”
During the artificial debt ceiling crisis that was created by republicans, the mainstream media tried to pin the blame on both parties. For fear of being called liberal, they create a narative where when something goes wrong both parties are to blame and when something goes right both parties acted responsibly. I took on this exact problem in two articles on the coverage of the artificial debt ceiling crisis.
http://jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2011/07/republicans-and-debt-ceiling_373.html
http://jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2011/08/debt-ceiling-deal-is-disaster.html
The House of Representatives passed HR658 on April 1st, 2011. It had the support of 17 different organizations, including several unions. This bill was then sent to the Democratic controlled Senate. Harry Reid (D-NV) then tabled the bill in the Senate and let it sit unanswered until after the workers had been laid off for several weeks.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h658/show
It helps when you get your “facts” correct.
And guess who also sides with the numbskull press on “Washington” (i.e., Democrats and Republicons equally) being the problem, and not a group of Republicon and Bagger nutzoids? The President, that’s who. It’s beyond frustrating to hear Obama rarely blame the culprits and instead finger “Washington” (eat your peas!) time and time again.
What TimN said. Obama called the FAA “another Washington-inflicted wound.”
“**Washington**”, Mr. President? Really?
White House spokesbot Jay Carney follows up, claiming that the 74,000 peole who lost jobs were “thrown out of work by a failure of Congress to act”.
“Congress”, Mr. Carney? Really?
So “changing the way Washington works” is always blaming everybody equally*, regardless of the facts.
(*To be fair, the White House doesn’t *always* blame everybody equally. Occasionally it seems to relish heaping special blame on the left. Whatevs.)
I should have moved to Canada decades ago, when I still could. Clearly, American politics is circling the drain, taking America with it.
K Hodges, the House bill required major changes to FAA labor policies and the ending of subsidies for airports in democratic districts. The republicans attached these issues to a policy that needed to be done regardless, just like they did in the debt ceiling debate.
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/04/138968210/unionizing-flight-subsidies-central-to-faa-standoff?ps=rs
Like Jim, I’m sick of hearing Obama and others blame “Washington” or “Congress” for what Republicans do. Call a spade a spade!!!!!!!!!
Extortion has only one side extorting, the other side the victims – one side terrorizing, the other the victims. Let’s be clear. And for God’s sake, let’s stop letting them do it. You don’t negotiate with terrorists if the terrorists are in the house. You prosecute them, use the Constitution (14th Amendment), impeach them, throw them out of office in the next election. We can’t allow this to happen! If we do, we’ve lost our democracy.
This is what i hear. Democrats screaming at the top of their lungs to give them more money.Beg borrow steal or print it….but give it to them.It is an addiction. Republicans and especially tea party types saying over and over again that the answer is no.!Liberals need to realize the only way to get money is to earn it. And there is only one way to EARN it. Through the creation of new business. Entrepreneurship unleashed.This means the Dems have to do that thing most hated by them.Allow the recreation of wealth.Make this country the most business friendly place on earth.As things now stand You have in effect murdered the host with your parasitic ways.You suck away at the tit while choking the life out of the thing that gives you sustenance.
Sherry if you think the tea party are terrorists because they are shutting down the government printing presses i am at a loss
The media’s neutrality does indeed take its cue from President of the United States, who has turned Teddy Roosevelt’s bully pulpit into a hiding place for a poorly advised, self-centered fool. It’s time to face it, folks, Obama is incompetent.
If Obama was not incompetent, would it be reported in the media? If it’s not reported, it didn’t happen.
Doug interesting question twisted in an interesting way.I think……. the majority of this media was in Obamas corner to an embarrassing degree once upon a time.Now his steadfast addiction to tax n spend…his due north as it were has become painfully obvious.He is ,and always has been ,a one trick pony.He is not incompetent on an intellectual level.It is his ideology that has no competency .WE can not move out of this till he is gone.Today more and more of those famous business leaders who backed him are joining forces to deride him.He is,to use an old saying….bad for business.
Amazing that while “bad for business” Obama is President and Japan and Europe are struggling, US corporations, from Healthcare to Oil to Telecommunications to Insurance are posting record profits…
Corporate profits grew 36.8 percent in 2010, the biggest gain since 1950, according to a March report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Well the corporations are posting record profits for a number of reasons.They have learned to be leaner and meaner.They have in effect cut away the fat.Good for them …bad for everybody else(except for short term taxes to the gov)They are not hiring.Or expanding.And the economy is not rebounding by any measure.
Last night we had the Republican debate.Bachman looked too dogmatic.Ron Paul too focused on philosophical government.Newt had some heated moments(not good)and so on.But uniformly they all had a better understanding of how a capitalist government is supposed to function.I would be the first to admit that they would probably all be lost in the socialist circles BAM has traveled in..Circles Obama seems to be able to write the book on.And that is not a good thing.It is a great thing.They were all miles better than what is in that office now.
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