Re: [blind-democracy] Re: Media Downplay Class Warfare as 'GOP Victory'

Leon Trotsky once spoke on the question of bias in the news. Actually,
he was responding to some accusations about his own biases. He said that
if he was a celestial object looking down on the Earth then perhaps he
could observe human affairs dispassionately and make no judgements.
However, he was not a celestial object. He was a human being involved in
human affairs with, not only his own personal interests, but with class
interests and so, of course he was biased. But it was not only Trotsky
who was biased. Any source of information that involves humans is going
to be biased. There is no way of avoiding it. If you hear claims of
neutrality from any news source you can be pretty sure that it is a
false claim. Instead, look for the biases. Consider the source and
consider the interests of the source. If the source is a profit making
institution and operates in a system that causes it to be dependent upon
the profit system then that should be a very big clue to what kind of
biases it will have right there. Instead of trying to find unbiased
sources try to be aware of what kind of biases you want your sources to
have and seek out those sources.
On 12/11/2017 11:27 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
> First, there has never been a neutral media in these United States of
> America. What we consider "The Media" is owned by large corporations,
> and funded by advertisements from other corporations. No matter how
> bland the "news" seems to be,, we must keep in mind that the Media is
> the vehicle that Corporate America uses to "push" their wares upon the
> rest of America. Whether the Corporate Media Captains admit it, or
> even understand it, they instinctively protect their "Golden Goose".
> And the Corporate Media has the center stage, pushing aside such news
> sources as Democracy Now, to the background. The Corporate Media not
> only refuses to deal with many central issues affecting the well being
> of the American working class, but it trashes the efforts of
> alternative news sources.
> So we have all been "educated" by a biased Corporate Media, and even
> defend it as being Fair, or Even Handed. NPR has moved further and
> further to the Right of Center in its efforts to "Be Fair", in an
> effort to satisfy their growing need for Corporate Support. Our very
> public education is shaped by our corporate masters. Our children are
> being "steered" toward preparing for the jobs required by the American
> Corporate Empire(ACE). Such jobs as military service, munition
> factory workers, manufactures of military hardware, law, business and
> political training lead the way. Social sciences, Human resources,
> nursing and even doctors are far less important to the Empire's needs.
> Those Social services can be purchased from anywhere, if you have
> enough money. And our Ruling Oligarchy certainly has plenty...even
> though they keep raking in more of our working class wealth.
> What our Neutral Corporate Media is not addressing is the fact that
> the American Corporate Empire is headed into rough waters and that it
> will take all we Americans can produce in order for the ACE to come
> out on top. Even if it must sacrifice the American People, and our
> Way of Life. The ACE will go as far as it needs in order to win,
> because the bottom line is Profit, not People. Not even national
> boundaries. The Corporate Media is missing the story of the century,
> the end of American Sovereignty, and the rise of the Mega Corporate
> States. Unless we manage to blow ourselves to Kingdom Come, this will
> be an entirely different World, a World of mass enslavement, dominated
> by huge conglomerates. Cold, unfeeling Masters who will make anything
> we ever thought we knew about "Total People Control" look amateurish.
> And mark my words, the outcome of the Alabama senatorial race will be
> a major sign as to which direction Americans will take. Who will
> control our lives? We, the People? Or, They, the Corporate
> Conglomerates?
>
> Carl Jarvis
>
> On 12/10/17, > Media Downplay Class Warfare as 'GOP Victory'
>> By Ben Norton, FAIR
>> 10 December 17
>>
>> The fallacy of "neutral," "both sides" journalism rings loud and clear in
>> corporate media reporting on the Republican Party's tax plan. The GOP bill,
>> passed by the Senate in the early hours of December 2 and described by
>> major
>> media outlets as a "tax cut," is in reality an explicit handout to large
>> companies and the ultra-rich that will actually increase taxes on
>> working-class Americans.
>>
>> But under the cover of a shallow understanding of "balance," corporate
>> media
>> have internalized the outlandish idea that it is "partisan," and thus not
>> "neutral," to acknowledge the undeniably destructive effects of particular
>> political policies. These inconvenient facts are hence not emphasized in
>> news reporting, and cannot be presented alone without being "balanced" with
>> an opposing perspective-even if that contrary view is demonstrably false.
>>
>> In the case of the GOP legislation, which will slash the corporate tax rate
>> and add some $1.4 trillion to the national debt, the deception took a
>> variety of forms.
>>
>> The primary distortion, as noted, was portraying the Senate GOP bill as a
>> massive "tax break." Headlines and reports spoke of "tax cuts" and "tax
>> breaks" vaguely, without indicating that the breaks were not for Americans
>> as a whole, but rather for corporations and the rich.
>> .Reuters (12/2/17): "Senate Approves Major Tax Cuts in Victory for Trump"
>> .New York Times (12/2/17): "Few Hurdles Left, GOP Is Confident Tax Cuts
>> Will
>> Be Signed This Month"
>> .USA Today (12/2/17): "Senate Passes Huge Tax Cuts After Last-Minute
>> Changes; Conference With House Next"
>>
>> By way of contrast, HuffPost (12/2/17) provided an apt corrective to the
>> vagueness: "Senate Passes Massive Tax Cuts for the Rich in Middle of the
>> Night." While The Atlantic (12/2/17) had a euphemistic main
>> headline-"Senate
>> Republicans Pass Their Tax Cuts"-the subhead clarified: "The bill slashes
>> corporate tax rates, but millions of middle-class families could face tax
>> increases under the $1.47 trillion bill."
>>
>> The Intercept (12/1/17) stressed further, "The GOP Plan Is the Biggest Tax
>> Increase in American History, by Far." After noting that the bill includes
>> some $6 trillion in tax reductions, largely for corporations and households
>> with annual incomes above $400,000 (i.e. the 1 Percent), reporter Ryan Grim
>> pointed out:
>>
>> [The bill] gets referred to as only a $1.5 trillion cut because it raises
>> $4.5 trillion in taxes elsewhere. But the key question is who gets a tax
>> hike and who gets a tax cut. Put simply, the bulk of the tax cut is going
>> toward the rich, while the tax increases go to everybody else.
>>
>> The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think tank,
>> reported that, "The lowest-earning three-fifths of Americans would pay more
>> on average in federal taxes, while the top 40 percent on average would
>> receive a tax cut," with the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans receiving an
>> average cut of more than $9,000.
>>
>> The Institute added, "The legislation is described as tax reform but would
>> cut hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare spending." The AARP
>> similarly warned that the Senate GOP bill would trigger up to $25 billion
>> in
>> cuts to Medicare.
>>
>> It would also add at least $1 trillion to the US federal deficit, according
>> to Congress' own Joint Committee on Taxation. The nonpartisan Penn Wharton
>> Budget Model estimate is even higher, at an additional $1.4 trillion in
>> government debt. This will no doubt be used to justify massive cuts in
>> social spending, including Social Security and Medicare, which leading
>> Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Marco Rubio are already
>> promising to go after.
>>
>> In other words, the Republican tax-deal-for-the-1-percent is nothing short
>> of class war: The working class will lose even more of the little wealth
>> that it has, and the capitalist class will reap all the benefits. The
>> legislation even includes a tax break for owners of private jets, along
>> with
>> banks and oil companies.
>>
>> Many reports did highlight some of these deleterious impacts of the tax
>> plan
>> in the body of the story, but they buried the lead. And the majority of
>> Americans do not read past the headline.
>>
>> Depicting a Working-Class Disaster as a 'Victory'
>>
>> Another way corporate media whitewashed the undeniably destructive effects
>> of the Republican tax plan is by portraying it primarily as a "victory" for
>> Trump and the GOP:
>> .Washington Post (12/2/17): "Senate GOP Tax Bill Passes in Major Victory
>> for
>> Trump, Republicans"
>> .BBC (12/2/17): "Tax Bill: Trump Victory as Senate Backs Tax Overhaul"
>> .AOL (12/2/17): "Trump Wins First Major Legislative Victory of Presidency
>> as
>> Senate Passes Republicans' Tax Reform Bill"
>> .Guardian (12/4/17): "Markets Rally After Trump's Tax Victory"
>>
>> It's striking how little this presentation-from "mainstream" media,
>> supposedly critical of Trump-diverged from that of right-wing outlets that
>> openly support Trump and the GOP, such as Fox News ("Trump Takes Victory
>> Lap
>> After Senate Passes Tax Bill, Calls It 'Largest Tax Decrease.by Far,'"
>> 12/2/17).
>>
>> The contradiction was highlighted in a SFGate report (12/2/17) with a
>> headline focused on political gamesmanship-"Senate Narrowly Passes GOP Tax
>> Overhaul Bill in Major Victory for Trump"-but a lead that acknowledged the
>> losses for regular people:
>>
>> Securing a desperately sought legislative victory for the Trump presidency,
>> the Senate approved a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul Saturday morning that
>> provides massive tax cuts to large corporations and wealthy individuals but
>> could lead to higher tax bills for millions of Californians.
>>
>> So why not headline the bill's impact on the vast majority of people? Why
>> showcase the Trump victory angle?
>>
>> ABC News (12/4/17) likewise exhibited these contradictions within one
>> broadcast. In a segment titled "Tax Bill Seen as Victory by Trump, GOP,"
>> the host said, "Right now the bill is pretty unpopular," without explaining
>> why or providing any further information.
>>
>> "This is a big legislative win, the most significant one for the Trump
>> administration thus far, and this is something to take home to your
>> constituents," declared ABC analyst Meghan McCain. The daughter of
>> neoconservative Sen. John McCain even referred to the Republican Party as
>> "we."
>>
>> It was not until further in the segment that ABC analyst Matthew Dowd
>> noted,
>> "Seventy percent of the benefits of this tax bill go to the very wealthy,
>> the top 1 or 2 percent of the country." Refuting the title of the segment,
>> Dowd added:
>>
>> This may be a legislative victory, but it's not a political victory. It's
>> an
>> unpopular bill, the most unpopular tax bill ever passed, pushed by an
>> unpopular president, passed by an unpopular Congress.
>>
>> More and More Euphemisms
>>
>> The ubiquitous term "tax reform" (e.g., CNN, 12/2/17; The Hill, 12/4/17;
>> Politico, 12/5/17; CNBC, 12/5/17) has a misleadingly benevolent
>> connotation-who doesn't like reform?-so long as media don't ask who
>> benefits
>> and who is harmed. Likewise other headline language, such as "tax overhaul"
>> or "revision," that fails to reflect the different impacts of Republicans'
>> plan:
>> .Reuters (12/2/17): "US Senate Approves Republicans' Tax Overhaul"
>> .CBS (12/2/17): "Tax Bill: Senate Passes Sweeping Tax Overhaul in Early
>> Morning Vote"
>> .Wall Street Journal (12/2/17): "Senate Passes Sweeping Revision of US Tax
>> Code"
>>
>> With euphemisms like "mixed bag" and "mixed blessings," several outlets
>> seemed to gesture weakly toward the massive assault on working-class
>> Americans. Reuters (12/2/17) reported that the "sweeping tax overhaul" will
>> move "Republicans and President Donald Trump a major step closer to their
>> goal of slashing taxes for businesses and the rich while offering everyday
>> Americans a mixed bag of changes." The Washington Post (12/2/17) noted the
>> bill "bestows extensive benefits on corporate America and the wealthy while
>> delivering mixed blessings to everybody else."
>>
>> That "everybody else" is reduced to a subordinate clause perfectly
>> represents how corporate media's pretense of "balance" barely veils their
>> reflexive positioning on the side of the rich.
>>
>>
>> e-max.it: your social media marketing partner
>>
>>
>>
>>