HuffPo - "Debt Ceiling Crisis 2013: The Media Needs To Be Trained" - No False Equivalency!

[TomCADem]

This is a nice article that calls out the mainstream media for enabling Republicans by not pressing them on the fact that they are proposing to damage the economy on purpose. If Democrats seriously made similar extortion demands, the media would be whipping up the public similar to what the media did in whipping up the Tea Party hysteria, which of course was powered by millions in corporate astroturf.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/debt-ceiling-2013_n_2410622.html

But what's changed to make things worse is that this is no longer mere idle talk and procedural bravado -- there are people in Congress who truly see default as an ideal alternative to having to concede any points in what should be a rational process of negotiation and deal-making. Rep. Michele Bachmann made her willingness to destroy the global economy for the glory of Tea Party Caucus a central selling point for her presidential candidacy. And now, legislators who were once considered reasonable have become enablers to the lunatics. (And unfortunately for everyone, a key enabler to this madness has been that former Illinois Senator, who opened the door to negotiating over the debt ceiling back when he was still hopeful of a "grand bargain" on the debt.)

But the enabling isn't just happening in Congress, it's happening in the media, as well, which is why another thing I would like to make clear is that those who see debt ceiling lunacy as a legitimate side in a debate or just one more interesting point of view among many are just as culpable in what could be a pending economic calamity as the lunatics themselves. I'm not alone in this concern. Greg Sargent has done a fine job outlining the logical fallacy behind legitimizing debt ceiling hostage taking and notes in particular that by and large, the media has framed the entire fiscal debate incorrectly.

* * *
It wasn't always this way. But as Alec MacGillis explains over at The New Republic, as idle talk over debt ceiling hostake-taking evolved, seemingly overnight, into a more serious and dangerous psychosis, the media coverage has shifted in reverse. Where the hostage-taking was once portrayed properly, as "brazen and unprecedented," the media now gives the hostage-takers a pass.

And since the "fiscal cliff" was "averted" and the media has shifted focus to the next big battle, discussion of the debt ceiling dead-enders and their future plans has only gotten more blithe and unconcerned. MacGillis provides a fine example of what's been steeping in the Beltway brain since New Years Day -- this passage from the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza that treats debt-ceiling hostage taking as a perfectly natural and polite thing to do, never registering even a scintilla of shock over the implication of using the threat to tank the global economy as a bargaining tactic

[Flabbergasted]

1. Call their bluff. Nt

[TomCADem]

2. Media Will Portray Ensuing Chaos As Obama's Economic Policies

The problem is that Republicans will not be held accountable for the meltdown that follows.

[Flabbergasted]

3. There are media outlets that may try that but it is would be pretty obvious that it isn't true...

I don't think the R handlers will endorse this strategy all the way through to default. The GOP is a damaged brand. They don't have the political capital to force Obama to accept concessions on this. And the media will not have the power to sculpt public opinion to blame it on obama's economic policies.

This can only damage the GOP further imo.