media lies - my letter to Maureen Dowd

[jafap]

I enjoyed your column about the con-men, but I think it is unfair to pick on Jayson Blair. The following is a letter that I wrote to my local paper (and they printed):

It must be tough to be Jayson Blair. His little lies were exposed and denounced, while larger lies are given a free pass. One would hope that journalism would stand up for Dorothy, the small and meek. Yet instead of exposing the "man behind the curtain, " the media acts as a propaganda arm for "the great and powerful Oz".
A case in point is the editorial from Connellsville's Daily Courier which was reprinted in Friday's local paper.
First, there is the specious defense of Bush's latest tax cut for the wealthy. Bush throws a few nickels to the middle class to hide the briefcases full of hundred dollar bills that goto the wealthy. Instead of exposing this fraud, the Daily Courier defends it. "Pay no attention to Cheney's $40,000, look at the shiny new nickel you are getting."
Second, they re-write history to slander the Democratic party, blaming the deficits of the 1980s on the Democrats in Congress. Al Franken refutes this: "Over the eight years of the Reagan Presidency, the Gipper asked Congress for $16.1 billion more in spending than it passed into law."
Finally, there is the Blair-like assertion that the Reagan tax cuts increased government revenues. As a former teacher of college macroeconomics I know that is absolutely false. Here are the numbers on Government income tax revenues in billions of constant (1982) dollars. Starting in 1977 - 241, 256, 286, 287, 307, 298, 277, 276, 301, 304, 337, 333, 355, 355. It is clear that from 1981 at 307 until 1986 at 304 that there is no increase. Also, the jump in 1987 is no more impressive than the jump from 1978 to 1979.
People read the newspaper to keep informed. It does not help when the newspaper spreads mis-information.

The same local paper prints columns by Joseph Perkins, and one of his columns was the ridiculous claim that Blair injured all black journalists by his conduct. The ridiculous part is that Perkins himself, a black "journalist", lies like a sack of excrement. Previously I had written to the paper saying that Perkins' columns could be enjoyed if a person played a game called "find the hidden lies". I counted ten lies in his current column and gave examples of two or three of them. Do you suppose Jayson Blair ever put ten lies into one column?
You wrote:
"For Cooke, Glass and Blair, their editors were the marks. But at least that unholy trio only soiled newsprint. For the Bush crowd, the American people were the marks."
It is nice of you to challenge the lies of the Bush administration, but do you talk about their enablers - most people in the media? The Bush administration is aided by an army of shills posing as journalists and entertainers - the front line of the propaganda arm for "the great and powerful". The same people who are at the same time always ready to defend Bush and to paint Clinton, Gore, Dean, and Clark as liars (my bad, I ignored the fact that they also paint Kucinich, Sharpton, and Braun as irrelevant, extremist wackos). The free press, as Lenin described it, worth every penny - your source for corporate propaganda, spin, and libel. A press which is filled with liars more insidious in quality and more prolix in quantity than Cooke, Glass, and Blair combined and taken to the third power.

[Gloria]

1. Good...let's see if she responds....she responded to me once with

a really snotty email....but that was while she was still loving every little thing that Bush was doing...

[wryter2000]

2. Hey, jafap

Where did you get that statistic on income tax revenues? I constantly fight with a supply sider about tax breaks creating revenue, but I haven't been able to find a source for relevant statistics.

Also, I'd like to see stats on personal bankruptcies and home forclosures. Any insights there?

[jafap]

4. you expect me to be a real researcher?

I am lucky if I can get my hands on the facts, let alone keep track of the source of the facts. I think it was from a table in the 2001 Statistical abstract which got their numbers from some Government office.

Okay, so I don't footnote, but I am sure of the accuracy of those numbers and that anyone else who digs will find the same thing (note, if your numbers are not in 1982 constant dollars they will not look the same).

I have written several letters to Dowd which I humbly think are entertaining and informative. She never writes back. Not even an automated response like I get from Herbert and Krugman and Kristof and Safire.

[papau]

7. IRS.GOV - constant dollars by type of tax spreadsheet

You will find that most of the growth in tax collections under Reagan were due to his increasing the payroll tax.

If you compare the Reagan years to Carter, and project the Carter tax rates on Reagan, you get 60% of what Carter tax rates would have pulled in as what Reagan did pull in.

Reagan Tax cut really was a tax cut.

The only way one gets "reasonable to the Reagan myth" numbers is to start in the 3rd year of Reagan, and take absolute dollar increases with out inflation adjustment and pretend that these as a percentage were the result of the tax cuts -- you must ignore the real result of the tax cuts - a 14 month recession that was so deep that Reagan did not have to fake the numbers, as George is doing now, in order to get a 7% recoverey quarter in 84 (just in time for the election - gee - was it planned - as Fox says - folks do not care about the past - only about where we go from here.).

It is easy to hate the media.

[rfranklin]

3. Maurren the Unloved was another "enabler"

She attacked Gore with lies and let Bush the Lesser slide during the 2000 campaign, enabling Bush to get close enough to steal the election. She is a whore giving two-dollar blow jobs to the Bush junta.

[jafap]

5. I told her much the same thing

I was surprised to read her attacking the "boy King" when I remember her constantly attacking and mocking Gore before the election.

[Kanary]

6. great letter

I admire your "stick-to-it-iveness"....

Now, in a shameless effort to express a question I've been having... Apologies for piggy-backing here, as I'm not trusted with the keys to post my own thread...

What about organizing some protests directed towards the media, with some of the same people who protested the war? I think a lot of people are very angry with the loss of objective reporting, and we need to find a good way to claim it again.

Thanks for any thoughts you have on this... or if you want to start a thread with it, that's fine, too. *Something* has to be done to reclaim our media!

Kanary

[jafap]

9. best protest

don't buy their papers, don't watch their shows.

Use the net.

[pasadenaboy]

8. MoDo

is an equal opportunity hater. She has venom and bile for everyone.