Why Are Public Broadcasters Parroting Conservative Talking Points?
Thttp://www.thenation.com/article/why-are-public-broadcasters-parroting-conservative-talking-points/
Take a look at how right-wing memes dominated the February 11 debate that PBS moderated between Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Judy Woodruff began the evening by informing Sanders that voters were asking, “How big a role do you foresee for the federal government? It’s already spending 21 percent of the entire US economy. How much larger would government be in the lives of Americans under a Sanders presidency?” She presented no evidence to support her contention that a significant number of Democratic primary voters, or even potential general-election voters, actually care about this. And it’s hard to believe that many do. The “size” of government may excite Tea Party activists and conservative pundits, but in the real world, people concern themselves with what the government does and doesn’t do for them. (Just ask President Rand Paul.) Woodruff might have asked Sanders to justify his plans on the basis of their efficiency.
For instance: Would single-payer healthcare really save people more money in healthcare payments than it would cost in higher taxes? Sanders tried to answer her this way, providing the substance Woodruff’s question lacked. But she simply doubled down, demanding, “My question is: How big would government be? Would there be any limit on the size of the role of government?”
PBS’s other moderator, Gwen Ifill, continued in the same silly vein. Her first question, to Hillary, complained that she too has “proposed fairly expansive ideas about government.” She recalled Bill Clinton’s announcement that “the era of big government is over” as if it had been Hillary, not Bill, who’d said it. Ifill went on: “When asked your feelings about the federal government this week, 61 percent of New Hampshire Democrats told exit pollsters that they are angry or at least dissatisfied. Given what you and Senator Sanders are proposing—an expanding government in almost every area of our lives—is it fair for Americans who fear government to fear you?” Note the rhetorical, right-wing sleight-of-hand here: How does the percentage of New Hampshire Democrats who are “angry or at least dissatisfied” with the government translate into a complaint about the size of government, much less an undefined “fear” of Hillary? Is it not at least equally possible that Americans are “angry” or “dissatisfied” at Congress’s refusal to address a tax code that benefits the superwealthy or to rein in the predatory practices of the big banks?
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