News Media Lying to the Public
I follow Dean Baker because it is easy to do so. I do not end up pondering whether something written makes sense or not. Perhaps, my agreement is due to my seeing the same issues and understanding them. However let’s face it, bad news media does sell advertisements which pays for this.
If I told you everything was rosy as documented at Angry Bear, would you read us? You would probably shrug your shoulders and yawn. If we give you something to argue about, you will probably do so. Dean had a brief article up, which I agree with because what he is talking about has or is stilling happening now. I saw similar during and after the 2008 events.
Let’s Be Clear, Harris Has a Problem on the Economy Because the Media Have Lied to the Public, CEPR
Dean Baker . . .
The New York Times ran a column, by Duke University law professor Jedidiah Briton-Purdy, telling Vice-President Harris how she can turn around her deficit in public opinion polling on the economy. The gist of the piece being most people are hurting now . . . but, Harris can turn things around by adopting a more populist agenda.
It would be great to see Harris push a more populist agenda. I have written extensively on how the economy has been rigged to redistribute income upward. So, I totally support Harris pushing more progressive policies. However, the extent to which anyone will hear a progressive message is open to question. The most fundamental problem is that people now believe a story about the economy that is almost completely at odds with reality.
Contrary to what Briton-Purdy tells us, most people are not hurting now, or at least not more than they did in the past, like before the pandemic when Donald Trump was president. Back then most people said the economy was good.
Somehow, when all the data tell us that most people are doing better off, especially those in the lower end of the income distribution, we have a continual drumbeat in the media about the economy being awful. And it is not just data on wages and prices, we see people behaving as though they are doing pretty well.
JPEGs added by Angry Bear
For example, air travel was at record highs this summer. At its peak, boardings (left) were close to 3 million a day. That is not the one percent. We have a similar story with car travel, which also hit record highs (right – partial)) this summer, with 70 million people hitting the road on the holidays. That also is not the one percent. (Click on image to enlarge)
Purchases of restaurant meals are up by 10.5 percent comparing it to the pre-pandemic rate, after adjusting for inflation. Purchases of meals at fast-food restaurants, also adjusted for inflation, are up by 19.4 percent. Inflation-adjusted spending at sporting events is up by 12.2 percent.
This list can be extended at considerable length, but the point is that people are not acting as though they are suffering. We do have tens of millions of people struggling to get by, and many of them are not getting by, but that was true in 2019 when the prevailing story was the great economy.
When we have a prevailing economic story that is literally 180 degrees at odds with the economic reality, it is worth asking how we can envision Vice-President Harris getting her economic message out to the electorate, if she were to push the themes advocated by Briton-Purdy. The media have bent or even invented data to tell a bad economy story throughout the Biden-Harris administration.
Since the media have used their power to convince the public of a bad economy story that is 180 degrees at odds with reality, what chance will Harris have of getting out her message on the economy in a coherent way? That seems pretty unlikely in the seven weeks left until the election unless we envision that the media will completely change their policies on covering the Democrats.
To be clear, I don’t know what Harris can best say in the current media environment. And any discussion that does not recognize that Harris’s message will not be directly transmitted to the voters is unrealistic. Instead, it will be mediated by news organizations that have been insistent on painting a negative picture of the economy regardless of the facts.
I wish the Democrats had spent more time combatting the misinformation about the economy that major media outlets spewed endlessly for the last three and a half years, but it’s kind of late now. Harris can put worthwhile proposals on the table, which she already has, and hope that they reach the public. But her best hope is . . . a majority of voters will be unwilling to put a lying, corrupt, incompetent, buffoon back in the White House.
I guess we’ll see.
Not to mention, Harris has been *Vice* president, while Trump was *President.* Big difference, although you’d never notice it in the MSM. Where we see the “Biden Administration,” they see the “Harris-Biden Administration.”
Feh.
Joel:
I get immensely tired of the BS spewing forth from people’s mouths. They buy into anything which will denigrate. It is painfully obvious they do not recall 2008-2013 – layoffs and shutdowns. Prices increase because they ask for higher prices even though there in no addition costs.
If it really was (and it wasn’t) Harris making all of the economic decisions during the pandemic, then she has experience. But because she was not the woman in charge of deciding on the economic plans does not take away from her knowledge base. She was there and taking in all of what Biden decided on and what was said to him by the experts. That is a learning experience.
trunp can give two craps about the people and the economy. It is all about him and when are next McDonalds Big Macs coming.
People are just being rude and are trying to find fault when there is none to be found. It was the best recovery we have ever had.
I am a 73 years old and retired. I have time on my hands.
Each year my charitable club has a fund raising drive for local agencies that serve “developmentally handicapped” persons. We stand in front of stores with a smock and get donations.
This year I pulled two shifts at a major super market. The facial expressions were not encouraging! I did not get to “work” a package store so I do not know how depressed that demographic may be.
The people you need to convince are the ones I saw today!
Maybe supermarkets are the worst places to be. Even if there are many bright spots in the economic performance, grocery prices have upset most people. People are cranky about food prices. This might be moderating a little now.
I believe that Baker seriously overvalued the influences of media like the Washington Post. I’ll say it for the tenth time: food prices soured millions of peoples’ attitudes, not the WaPo misstating in a pretty small way some census data. Food prices got people cranky as heck. I sense those attitudes are starting to fade a little. Baker also overvalues people’s mood. He points out that the data is that things are going well. I’m no economist, but this feels like a good reason to simply conclude that transient public moods are not a major factor in economic performance.
One of the best gauges of the health of the consumer is the savings rate. Prior to the pandemic, the national savings rate was 7.2%. Currently it’s less than 3%. At the same time, consumer debt continues to rise. I suppose you could argue people are feeling confident because they are rackin up their credit card bills. Or, they are paying for necessities with plastic.
The media did fail us. Even PBS reports that dissatisfaction with the economy is the major issue with voters. Why is this? Could be because the media tells us what the polls say and what we think but fails to employ the 5 Ws of journalism in re inflation, the economy, etc. Maybe they should explain how inflation really works, not give us Paul Solomon-like simplistic dogmatic answers. Maybe they should point out that the COVID money kept the economy afloat, and was done with the full knowledge of the probable aftereffects. That inflation likely didn’t even start in the US. Who, what, when, and why. Doesn’t get more basic. Why not report that voters may feel this way because, in this good economy, their share is not enough to live on? Now there’s a real story for real journalists.
Ken:
The news sells sensation to us. Its goal is not supposed to be about reality and the facts. I wonder how Nixon’s lies would appear today. The pandemic economic solution was wrongly presented as a flawed response. Biden did what should have been done in 2008. For what he did, he has been treated poorly. The media could have presented a differ view. Instead, they sold advertisements picking him apart. WE were fortunate to have him react in the way he did with providing aid. That was the story which was largely ignored.
So, yeah I am with your version . . . I think.
I know that things cost more now. Much of that has nothing to do with what the federal government does or does not do. The government did not force suppliers to raise their profit percentages when their costs went up, that was just greed seizing an opportunity. Much of the supply chain problem started overseas, with Covid. Not even Trump’s fault.
It certainly wasn’t the fault of Biden, Harris, or the Democrats in general that union workers have declined in the last 40 years. It isn’t their fault that younger voters have never seen inflation, and have no idea how union contracts and COLA clauses protected a good portion of American wages from inflation. Even the minimum wage was being increased fairly regularly way back then.
I remember some 30 years ago when we first got our (then vacation) home in the rural area we have lived in since retirement. Celebrating our first weekend, went to Vons (the only real big supermarket in town, still is) for steaks. Saw a beautiful rib eye and reached for it. Then I saw the price on the package and drew my hand back as if it were a rattlesnake. Easily more than twice what I was used to paying down south in the suburb. We went out to dinner instead. The price of dinner out was only about 1/3 more than what was normal down below.
When the grocery costs went up after Covid, everyone had those types of experiences buying the same foods they always did, if they could even find them. Shrinkflation became a buzzword again, even if the kids thought it was new. My electric bill has tripled. Not the fault of the feds. Can’t say the same about the PUC. And even then, part of the extra costs the Edison company has are really needed.
I look at my checking balance. All our income goes into it. All our bills come out of it. Including a small amount of savings. It still keeps going up, not down. And when it gets too high some additional savings comes out. We may well have changed the way we live. I know we go out less. Our old place lost so many servers that the service was terrible. And the Mexican food from the food trucks is better than most of the restaurants in town, so that is more take-home. But we still spend less than our income. SS cola made up for the drop in 401k income. And what we own is paid for, which means what we spend is 80% discretionary. Someone paying for shelter and transportation with growing kids or kids in college is a very different case.
And the people complaining most about inflation are still the ones who are better off.