Press Criticism

An NYT piece suggests that unprecedented tax hikes for all Americans may be coming in January. In fact, what we have is basically a rerun of 2010. The central question once again: will President Obama stand up to the GOP and allow tax rates on the wealthiest Americans to return, as scheduled, to their Clinton-era levels?

Lots of anecdotes to show that the City Council Speaker is down to earth, but little of substance. When you leave out the fact that Quinn runs the Council undemocratically, thwarts the will of voters, and serves the interests of the one percent, you don't have much of a profile.

Two recent NYT articles ignore altogether the need for a critical approach. In one, a front-pager billed as a news article, the reporter could easily be mistaken for a member of BlackRock's PR team. In the other, the reporter treated with contempt the idea that workers deserve to have bargained-for pensions benefits honored.

Apparently enamored of the virtues of "compromise" regardless of circumstance, the poll might just have well have asked: “Should officials in the two parties act like adults in order to get the country’s business accomplished, or should they insist on all their silly ‘positions’ as we watch effective governance grind to a halt?”

In other words, a little from column A and a little from column B. By stubbornly resisting the possibility that one faction's prescription (even a liberal Democratic or a Tea Party Republican one) can sometimes be correct to the exclusion of all other options, formula replaces reporting.

Chrysler employees, we are given to understand, are thrilled to be working in the auto industry, even if they are forced to accept wages much lower than their colleagues. What do we learn about what this means for their lives? Nothing.

In other words, a little from column A and a little from column B. By stubbornly resisting the possibility that one faction's prescription (even a liberal Democratic or a Tea Party Republican one) can sometimes be correct to the exclusion of all other options, formula replaces reporting.