The media's false equivalency

One of the most maddening things about this whole interminable and wholly unnecessary squabble about raising the debt ceiling has been the mainstream media's insistence on a false equivalency of the two sides. When covering the story, they will invariably insist that both Republicans and Democrats are equally to blame for the debacle, the inability of the government to function.  This is categorically untrue, and so-called journalists do a great disservice to the country and betray their professional ethics when they choose to report the story in that way.

In fact, the debt ceiling crisis has been entirely manufactured by the tea party-led Republicans whose goal is quite simply to destroy government, to do away with all regulation, oversight, consumer and public health protections, and with the social safety net that has made life more comfortable for the poor and for the middle class.  Their constituents are not the poor and the middle class.  Their constituents are the richest of the rich and they are entirely faithful to the protection and promotion of their welfare - including the welfare they receive from the rest of us in the form of subsidies and tax breaks.

The Democrats, including President Obama, have, on the other hand, bent over backwards to appease their ideological foes, even to the point of failing to protect the interests of their constituents.  Time and again they have offered compromises only to see them slapped back in their faces by the tea partiers, who have absolutely zero understanding of how a democratic government is supposed to work.  But none of this willingness to compromise is ever acknowledged by the mainstream media, and most especially not by the right-wing media which only ever reports one side of any issue.  No, to hear them tell it, both sides are equally to blame and both must do more to compromise in order to end the stalemate.  The only way the Democrats could compromise more would be to simply abdicate and accede to all the Republicans demands.  With a limp noodle of a president "leading" them, it is entirely possible that they will do exactly that.

All I can say is, it is too bad that Nancy Pelosi is not president.  That woman has balls!  And she is not afraid to stand up for Democratic principles. Unfortunately, she is held back by two dead weights, Barack Obama and Harry Reid.

Where will it all end?  Not in a good place, I'm afraid.  But no doubt the mainstream media will report it as a compromise by both sides and will thereby give legitimacy to the whole sorry mess.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C.J. Box - A review