Has the Media Totally Forgotten About the Unemployed?

[woo me with science]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/05/has-the-media-totally-forgotten-about-the-unemployed/239048

Has the Media Totally Forgotten About the Unemployed?
By Derek Thompson
May 17 2011, 4:20 PM ET Comment


On Capitol Hill, any trace of job-oriented stimulus has melted with the winter snow. Instead, the city's hot for deficit reduction, and the press has caught the fever.

Articles mentioning unemployment have plummeted nearly 70 percent since last summer, while articles mentioning the deficit have doubled over the same time, according to a National Journal report.
....

Unemployment duration ain't what it used to be. In 1982, the last time unemployment tipped double digits, joblessness was more of a short-term affair. Across these four categories, the plurality of folks were unemployed for fewer than five weeks. In 2011, by contrast, about half the jobless have been out of work for at least 27 weeks. Just as striking, the number of people unemployed for less than five weeks remained under its historical average even during the worst months of the recession. In 1982, unemployment was a terrible cold, measured in weeks and maybe months. Today it's pneumonia .
....

The upshot is that the production economy thawed. But the labor economy froze. And the political will to fix the labor market faded in 2010. The press was partly complicit in this fade-out effect. But it's hard to blame the media too much for resisting to write feverishly about nonexistent efforts to fix a static unemployment problem.



http://media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=8187

[SDuderstadt]

1. + 1 n/t

[leftstreet]

2. K&R

[slay]

3. Yep. And so have the Republicans. A few months ago it was all JOBS JOBS JOBS

it's fucked up - our media drives the narrative and our media is owned by right wing corporate assholes. Now you never hear shit about jobs from "the media" - or the Republicans. :mad: :grr:

[peace frog]

5. Yep. In the states, it's all ABORTION ABORTION ABORTION

when the Repugs ran campaigns and won elections on JOBS JOBS JOBS. Classic bait and switch.

[mountainlion55]

4. You betcha!!!

Theres an election coming up best not to talk about the unemployed. :smoke:

[MadHound]

6. Not just the media, but the administration and Congress have forgotten about them as well

And any mention that nothing is being done about jobs is ignored. The jobless are on their own.

[woo me with science]

8. I think the author nodded to that with the second part I bolded above.

You are absolutely right.

[Donnachaidh]

9. ahh, but don't forget -- they'll be dragged back out with a *historic* fix

Something that will be the perfect photo-op, but not really do much for all the unemployed, later on in the election cycle. Right now it's the Osama bump that's *important*.

[LiberalLoner]

7. The unemployed don't exist. Homeless don't exist. Poor people don't exist. the

powers that be has decided only the top 2% of the nation are "real" people. The rest of us are invisible and not important.

We are becoming a banana republic, and fast. Welcome to the new America. Shrug. I am completely cynical today, I think there is now no stopping this.

[slay]

10. That sure seems to be the way our government is acting

fuck that - they aren't acting - they really don't care.

[Bigmack]

11. Yup... and they've forgotten about...

the 2 1/2 wars, the Wall Street ripoff, the Mortgage ripoff, the Supreme Court conflict of interest case, the ballooning "defense" budget, the crumbling infrastructure, the ..... oh, well, you get the picture.

What media are you talking about? The US media?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[socialist_n_TN]

12. I'm unemployed........

And I'm waiting for a labor group to try and organize us. The IWW would be nice. We all (almost) come out of the working class after all.

[Dulcinea]

13. Check this out:

http://www.unionofunemployed.com/

[Dulcinea]

14. No one cares about the unemployed.

Because there's no political will to do anything about it, by either party.

[ck4829]

15. K&R