The Economic Conversation Fox News Doesn't Want To Have
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201202160014February 16, 2012 6:31 pm ET by Leslie Rosenberg
After weeks of dismissing news that the economy is improving and downplaying concerns over income inequality, Fox News is now trying to pivot the conversation away from economic growth to focus on deficit reduction, even as economists continue to warn that doing so would be bad for the economy.
Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson and anchor Martha MacCallum argued that the debt "needs to be an issue" in the presidential election, and urged Republican candidates to make debt reduction "the issue" in the campaign. When guest Christopher Hahn argued that debt reduction could wait until the economy is on firmer ground before making our primary focus deficit reduction, MacCallum scoffed: "Oh please!"
Economists warn that debt reduction should wait until the economic recovery is on firmer ground. Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, explained that prioritizing the deficit now "makes no sense":
There are no businesses that are going to hire additional workers because the government laid off school teachers or firefighters and we cut back spending on food stamps. Businesses hire more workers when they see more demand for their product. All of these actions that reduce the deficit, either on the spending or tax side, translate into less demand and therefore less employment. In short, those who want to cut the deficit now are lobbying for fewer jobs and higher unemployment.
Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman has argued ...
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You would think that an organization dedicated to calling out right-wing misinformation would make sure everything they post is backed up with citations or at least be somewhat balanced.
The fact that they are implying that all economists are saying the economy is improving is a boldface lie. I work in the field, mostly with economists focusing on the local level (Indianapolis), but obviously the health of the nation plays into all of that.
Unemployment is still in the crapper.
Current Labor Force: 154,395,000.
June 2009 Labor Force: 154,730,000.
Labor force participation is terrible. Luckily, unemployment statistics are designed to paint a rosy picture, and they definitely do right now. I wish I had the ability to just disregard certain populations from a sample like the unemployment rate does.
Back when MediaMatters attempted to call out all media bias, they had a lot more influence. Back then, 80% of there stuff was about Rush Limbaugh or Fox News, but because they approached it in a way of trying to find proof instead of trying to prove the righties wrong, they were much more influential. I think a lot of people can see through Media Matters right now. I wish they would go back to being a source for journalistic integrity, instead of just attacking Fox News. There is plenty of BS to go around, but Fox isn't the only one.