This will be brief: mercifully I've cut back on my NPR listening, but the coverage of the financial crisis has been maddening. After hearing Democracy Now!'s excellent feature this morning with Michael Hudson and Nomi Prins I was struck with how uninformative NPR's reporting on the Wall Street meltdown is. My God, they haven't even mentioned the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in their coverage!
Honestly NPR's main message seems to be right in line with administration: calm down, everything's all right. Here's just a bit of what I've heard recently:
On Morning Edition, September 15, 2008: NPR turns to David Wessel of the Wall Street Journal. He says,
"They [things] don't look good, but they don't look as bad as some people anticipated..."
"...it doesn't seem to be the end of the world, at least not this morning."
"...if you have money and are willing to gamble you can make a good deal. When the economy comes back, when this episode ends over as it surely will end some day..."
On Morning Edition, September 16, 2008 Montagne opens with "As dire as the recent news has been, financial advisers say consumers and long term investors should not panic."
Frank Langfitt adds "...but even among the drumbeat of grim news some analysts caution ordinary Americans not to overreact."
All Things Considered, September 17, 2008 · NPR turns to Diane Brady, senior editor at Business Week. According to Michele Norris, "She's here to help us make sense of the government's plans for AIG."
Brady calmly explains that "What they're trying to do here is contain the crisis, that's the big issue."
I have to say the whole thrust of NPR seems to be to try to reassure listeners that - in spite of common sense - things are not so bad. And of course they are not about to address the structural systematic criminality and hypocrisy of the deregulated financial systems that have brought the economy to this point. Also I have yet to hear from one dissident economist who critiques the system. If you have heard one please note it in the comment section.
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6 comments:
Ironically, a significant voice I heard with a critique was Robert Kuttner on Fox, but he was shouted down by the snot-nosed noisemaker Sean Hannity before he could make a statement. Hannity said things were just fine! (Saw vid clip at Crooks & Liars, and it is painful viewing).
Things are just fine.
Look at the DOW and Nasdac--both are up for th month of September.
This was a periodic blip.
The events of this weeks show us that the fundamentals are strong.
You lefties are simply hoping the market will go down.
We can free up the market better if we can privatize SS and eliminate welfare.
Poor children don't need government run schools--they need to work. Look, their hands are smaller than any of the slaves...I mean 'workers' in China.
American ingenuity can be the dynamic force that keeps the US more competative than any other nation.
But, nooooooooo...you liberal do-gooders are trying to hobble the work-ethic in this country through your redistributionist delusions.
You should be thrown into an incinerator for being such class-envy haters of the achievers.
The fundementals are A-OKAY!
and it only cost the tax-payer 700,BILLION dollars!
(Slave Revolt , Was that satire?)
No, what is satire is the idea that the US voting public will opt for more of the McSame.
More tax cuts for the super rich, more war, more ecological havoc---and no end in sight.
That is not only satire, it is pure farce.
These are critical times.
Socialism for the rich--capitalist austerity for the poor. Hooveresque tent cities of the newly poor are popping up all over the country.
And the sheeple will vote for more of this shit?
Sorry, we need to send these Americans to Iraq--or, better, Iran.
If everything is just fine, then we don't need to bail out Wall Street, right?
Most of the pundits and members of our government sound downright somber, but there is ONE absolutely hilarious part about all this:
All the Free-Marketeerians and other Libertarian types on Wall Street, at the Fed and in Congress demanding a $1 trillion bailout of the "Capitalists" who went broke due to their own folly.
A Hollywood screenwriter couldn't make this stuff up if he tried.
Had to edumacate my NPR-listening dentist about Glass-Steagall this morning. "What's that?" She's a very smart lady, but had no idea, which tells me most Americans haven't a goddamned clue.
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