Categorical Aperitif

Jim Naureckas at FAIR does a great job of shredding Joe Klein over a Swampland post wherein Klein blames the public for being too stupid to understand that they've benefited from last year's stimulus package. Naureckas points out that the corporate media deserve a large portion of the blame for any such ignorance thanks to its penchant for unenlightening, faux-objective he-said/she-said reporting:

Here's how you're supposed to report on the stimulus, if you work for a newspaper or daily TV news program:

Obama, GOP Spokesman Differ on Stimulus Results

That's from the Boston Globe (11/27/09), considered one of the most "liberal" corporate news outlets. The story that followed dutifully quoted the president claiming he had cut taxes and extended jobless benefits, followed by Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind)  saying that Democrats had taken the economy "from bad to worse with their failed economic agenda and big government plans." Who was right? The story gave readers not a clue, allowing the Globe to successfully avoid taking sides.

Or look at the piece from CNN (1/25/10) that set Klein off, reporting on a poll that found "3 of 4 Americans Say Much of Stimulus Money Wasted."  Is the public right to think that?  The CNN story doesn't say--it's just telling us what we think, not what the facts are.

Now, you do find the occasional report on a study that finds that, in fact, increased government spending does seem to result in lower unemployment. But such stories are  greatly outnumbered by the he-said, she-said of routine political coverage--few if any of which will refer back to the coverage that cited actual data about the stimulus program.  Expecting citizens to figure out on their own which side's line of the day is more credible is like randomly inserting passages from The Lord of the Rings into a history textbook and being surprised when students think Gandalf was a real person.

But hey, if Texas textbook revisionists get their way, in a decade or two our kids might all be believing that Joe McCarthy saved the world by poking out the Eye of Sauron with his rolled-up list of State Department communists.