Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Caution: Propagandists at work

Here's a cute news analysis that allegedly offers insight into the ways the deficit "crisis" will impact the middle class. See if you can spot the propaganda...
The Wall Street Journal focuses today on those in the middle. "You can't address our fiscal situation without asking the vast bulk of the middle class to make a contribution," Robert Reischauer, a Democrat and former director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) told the Wall Street Journal.

"It's pretty clear that there isn't enough money to just tax the rich," another former CBO director, Republican Douglas Holtz-Eakin, put it. "I don't think the strategy will be let's hammer the poor. By process of elimination, you end up touching many more Americans."
"It's pretty clear that there isn't enough money to just tax the rich..." Oh, I love that. The implication here is that the rich have been taxed and taxed and now they are all tapped out.

The truth of the matter is that we are in this mess because Bush cut taxes on the rich. Then he went to war without raising taxes to pay for those wars. If we got rid of Dubya's tax cut on the affluent and if we ended the wars, most of the deficit will disappear.

Our propagandists have clever ways of making the obvious solution seem invisible or unthinkable.

On an unrelated note: A couple of days ago, I talked about walking into a fast food restaurant where the dining room TV was tuned to CNN. For a full forty minutes, the topic was the Casey Anthony verdict, which had been rendered nearly a week earlier. Today, I walked into the same restaurant, and saw that CNN was now running a piece on overweight children. I thought: Finally, they've moved on.

Five minutes later, the childhood obesity thingie was finished -- and guess which topic took up the next hour's worth of CNN's time?

You know what...? Strike out that "unrelated note" comment. This nonsense is related, all right. CNN's insane fixation on one questionable verdict, as though that were the only discussable item in the news, is a representative example of the propaganda system we call American journalism. Casey Anthony is one of the distractions which the pickpockets use to keep you from noticing the hand reaching for your wallet.

Wanna laugh? Go here. (Thanks, Red Dragon!)

Want another laugh? Ha. Hahahah. Heh. Ho. Ha.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Obama joke was funny, but the McBride rubbish left a foul taste. So the lesson she takes from seeing a stable cleaned next door is that her shit don't smell? Does she work for Murdoch or something?

Too dumb for abuse.

Harry

Gus said...

Yeah, McBride doesn't realize the corruption is system wide in America, probably even worse than Britain. But she's been so used to "looking the other way" that she thinks it's all integrity and smiley faces over here in our press corps. She's either very stupid, or paid very well to spread the BS that she does in that article. Most likely, both.

Twilight said...

I've never seen an Esquire mag, so can't tell whether that piece on Obama is supposed to be satire or not. Surely it has to be? As long as it is satire it's brill!

The piece about journalists - LOL!
She doesn't mention that journalists on both sides of the Atlantic are hobbled by what their corporate lords and masters will allow them to write on politics and other issues, so even if they began with motives pure as the driven snow, they'll end up lacking every inch of integrity they had...in order to keep their salary cheques coming.

RedDragon said...

It would be great if it WAS satire Twilight but alas...IT is not!

Those are the REAL thoughts of a deranged OBOT!

djmm said...

I never understood the Casey Anthony issue. I think the mom probably did kill her daughter, but unfortunately, the prosecution did not prove that beyond reasonable doubt to the jury. Justice is, sadly, not perfect: the guilty sometimes walk, the innocent are sometimes convicted.

But you might enjoy this:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/nancy-grace-seen-in-graveyard-sucking-marrow-from,20925/

djmm

Anonymous said...

I thought the Esquire piece read as satire. But who knows. I think Bernankes testimony to the JEC read as satire as well. Turns out I was wrong about the latter.

Harry