Washington Post Discards All Journalistic Standards In Attack on Social Security

[Faygo Kid]

News outlets generally like to claim a separation between their editorial pages and their news pages. The Washington Post has long ignored this distinction in pursuing its agenda for cutting Social Security, however it took a big step further in tearing down this barrier with a lead front page story that would have been excluded from most opinion pages because of all the inaccuracies it contained.

The basic premise of the story, as expressed in the headline ("the debt fallout: how Social Security went 'cash negative' earlier than expected") and the first paragraph ("Last year, as a debate over the runaway national debt gathered steam in Washington, Social Security passed a treacherous milestone. It went 'cash negative.'") is that Social Security faces some sort of crisis because it is paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes.

This "treacherous milestone" is entirely the Post's invention, it has absolutely nothing to do with the law that governs Social Security benefit payments. Under the law, as long as their is money in the trust fund, then Social Security is able to pay full benefiits. There is literally no other possible interpretation of the law. . .

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/washington-post-discards-all-journalistic-standards-in-attack-on-social-security#comments

This is the most treacherous, dishonest attack on decency by The Washington Post since it cheerleaded us into the Iraq War in 2003. Who paid for this? The Kochs? Pete Peterson?

[still_one]

1. That money was stolen from the Social Security Fund to pay for bush's wars. When the media, along

with the washington post made fun of Gore putting a "lock box" on the Social Security Fund so it could NOT be touched by the thieves in Washington, the media for the most part ignored the implications

[Recursion]

4. The lock box was a HORRIBLE idea

Rather than purchase bonds, he wanted to have the trust fund transfer money to the Treasury to redeem bonds so that borrowing to pay benefits would be cheaper. If you think the attacks are bad now, they would be MUCH worse if all the Trust Fund had was a "gentleman's agreement" with Congress to borrow to meet benefit payments.

[phasma ex machina]

5. Somebody's got to pay for the City of London bankster aristocracy's war machine.

AKA "The Cousinhood" who first invaded Afghanistan about a century ago.

"Bush's War" LOL. With a little help from the The Cousinhood's "monkey minder."



"I care not who sits on the throne of England (or its de-facto colony America). He who controls the money supply of England (or its de-facto colony America) controls the throne, and I control the money supply," -Amschel Bower de Rothschild, in 1911.

"The traded foreign exchange market is the big enchilada. It is the largest financial market in the world. The Bank for International Settlements estimates that the daily turnover in this market, including swaps, futures and spot purchases, is $4 trillion as of April 2010. This turnover increased more than 20% in the last 3 years. Trading is concentrated in London, accounting for 36.7%, while the New York share of the market is around 18%." (link)

[bhikkhu]

8. No, it wasn't

Even that is one of the ways people try to push the idea that Social Security is insolvent or somehow on shaky ground.

All of the money that goes into Social Security, all the payroll tax deductions that we all pay in, goes into preferred US Treasury bonds, which are held by the Social Security trust, and earn interest which also goes into the trust. The only current threat to Social Security - other than people being conned into supporting something really stupid - is if the US government stops honoring its bonds. No one is predicting that!

[MBS]

2. I'm glad I'm not alone

When I saw this story this morning (prominently displayed on the front page, no less), my thoughts were: :wtf:
Outrageous.

[Faygo Kid]

3. It reminds me of the Post's beating of the war drums in 2002-03.

I for one would like to know what's behind this. It was not journalism by any stretch of the imagination.

[Matilda]

6. Washington Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Say no more.

[The Wizard]

7. American journalism

generally echoes Repube propaganda. It will soon go the way of the Soviet Union.

[Skittles]

9. for the most part, it already has