Does it seem obvious to anybody else that the mainstream media, most notably CNN, is going out of its way to hang this entire economic situation (framed in easy-to-understand "villain/scapegoat" shorthand with the AIG story) around the neck of the Obama administration?Even supposedly liberally-biased MSNBC last night was painting this whole thing as the supposed tipping point for Obama's popularity, and a threat to getting his agenda done.
The worst of it, though, was Friday's reporting. Check out this CNN story, headlined "Geithner Treasury Pushed For Bonus Loophole", where the story opens with:
"Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNN Thursday his department asked Sen. Chris Dodd to include a loophole in the stimulus bill that allowed bailed-out insurance giant American International Group to keep its bonuses."Except that there's a slight problem. According to CNN's own transcript of the interview, he didn't say that, and in fact, when specifically asked, he said "No." The relevant passage (emphasis added):
Velshi: But inadvertently, might somebody at Treasury have told Sen. Dodd to do something that has now resulted in these payments not being able to ...So CNN is reporting something that's directly contrary to what Geithner said, and it's being picked up by everybody else.
Geithner: No, again, what we did is just express concern about the vulnerability of a specific part of this provision, the legal challenge, as you would expect us to do, that's part of the legislative process, but again, his bill also has this very important provision that allows us to go back and see if we can recoup these payments, and we're going to explore that, but in any case, we're going to make sure that the American people are compensated for any payments we can recoup."
I figured that the entrenched interests would be threatened by Obama's plans, but I never figured they'd be so blatant in their attempts to drag him down.
Mark Bruno
AWOP Political Contributor
Author of Left Of Center Blog
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Geithner said that all Treasury did was "express concern." Right. All Treasury did was say, "gee, Chris, this might be a little problem, but don't worry about it." No. Treasury pushed. Maybe "asked" is the wrong word, but they pushed, and it was hard push too.
ReplyDeleteAnd besides -- Geithner -- who as New York Fed chairman before he was Treasury Secretary -- was part of the Bush deal with AIG. He was there, physically present in the room when Paulson, Bernanke and Goldman Sachs worked it all out. He knew damn well the bonuses would be paid.
I don't think the criticisms of Geithner are about trying to drag Obama down. They're about pointing out some very real problems with the man Obama picked as Treasury Secretary. Geithner -- and Larry Summers too -- were part of the problem. They're not going to be part of the solution. Obama's selection of those two guys on his economic team is the single most baffling thing he's done as president. For some reason, though, none of the media seems to want to talk about that directly. Instead, my darling colleagues, most of whom have no memory of anything that took place beyond a month ago, play this indirect game, as if somewhere in their cobwebbed minds they know there's something askew here even if they can't quite put their fingers on what it is.
The AIG crap isn't going to affect Obama's popularity either, no matter how many times MSNBC says it will. People are unhappy about the bonuses -- but they're not going to abandon Obama because of it. The GOP is working on Chris Dodd because of it, but that's a distraction. Dodd's not the problem. The Bush approved bailout of AIG is the problem.
But honestly, the whole thing's a little weird. CongressCritters are going all pitchforky about the bonuses -- but just a couple of weeks ago they couldn't stand the thought of taxing those same guys 4 percentage points more on the part of their earnings that exceed $250,000? And once again, my colleagues fail to point that out, because apparently their short term memory problems are getting shorter.
My colleagues in the media are very confused these days. Other than the bozos in the Republican Party, at Fox "News" and the Ayatollah Limbaugh, I don't think they want to bring Obama down. They really want to tell the truth, but they're horrendously out of practice and have no idea how. That's how we get Chuck Todd asking Obama if the American people ought to be asked sacrifice more for this "war" on the economy, as if the American people haven't already been stripped to the bone, and Ed Henry pushing the president on why he waited three whole days when he learned about the bonuses to say anything about them, as if he needed that time to figure out that people were going to be pissed.
we have no real "journalistic media" anymore --- what passes as media is really just a disguise for entertainment.
ReplyDeletechuck todd really blew it - and i think he knows it. it was a question that had no answer.
i thought it was quite interesting that there is a bill to allow newspapers run as nonprofits. i have to read more about it
as long as america thinks American Idol is news, which MOST of it does, including people like Diane Sawyer -- then there is no hope