NPR Loves it Some Dumbness

I made the mistake of listening to NPR for about 15 minutes this morning and got to hear Andrea Seabrook present a Bart Simpsonesque explanation of debt economics. Here's Andrea:

"...so it's useful to take a moment and just remind ourselves of the big picture here. The financial world is already kind of skittish; the markets haven't tanked, but investors are on alert. They're still recovering their confidence from some pretty hard shakes in 2007 and 2008. Now they're watching other countries - especially Greece - deal with the effects of too much government debt built up over years of spending. And then they look at the US...and the benefits the government has promised to people who are retiring cost way more than it can afford... Investors see serious work that needs to be done..."

Just a few notes on Andrea's brilliant analysis:

• The Big Picture: You might be thinking that she would mention the collapse of that little old $8 trillion housing bubble [one of those "hard shakes"], or wage stagnation that drives down consumer demand, or the whole ponzification of the US and global financial markets, or....
• Greek Debt Crisis as caused by "years of spending": It's hard to imagine a more stupid summary of the complex Greek situation involving complicated Eurozone history & politics, investor predatory practices, and fallout from the US economic crisis - unless the purpose of the analysis is to promote the FOX/Republican (and now Democratic leadership) line that government spending is a bad thing.
• Retirement benefits are more than government can afford: well what can you say to this pure propaganda about Social security - except to note that it fits with NPR's regular assaults on this successful government program.

Crash Test Dummies

If you haven't been reading the Q Tips (open thread) of late, you've missed some excellent commentary on NPR's coverage of the Big Three Auto Crisis/Bailout. I think it's worthwhile to put some of it here - and add a few more links to boot.

Woody commented that NPR has featured Senator Richard Shelby in it's coverage of the Big Three's request to congress. Woody writes that, "Shelby is critical of efforts to save the 'Big 3.' The story quoted him extensively, without ever mentioning that Shelby was NOT an honest commentator: Alabama's auto business--Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota all have (non-unionized) manufacturing plants in the State." As Woody pointed out in another comment, Crooks and Liars exposes how the corporate owned/leaning media has refused to exposed what a hypocrite Shelby actually is.

Another reader, War on War Off, provided this great link to Jane Hamsher's piece at Firedoglake pointing out the truly massive government subsidies provided to the foreign automakers in the US.

In NPR's Friday ME report Frank Langfitt states:

"But other senators remain skeptical, especially Richard Shelby from Alabama, the committee's ranking Republican....some critics of the Detroit companies suggest they should head to bankruptcy court. There, they say, a judge could enforce the tough, painful restructuring necessary for the firms' survival."

Since Langfitt brings up the elusive "some critics" recommending bankruptcy, it's worthwhile to consider another Crooks and Liars link regarding what is not said when Republicans (and Frank Langfitt) suggest the crash test of bankruptcy as a solution.

It's really too bad that all things are never considered on NPR, because the big three crisis offers a rare opportunity to explore the complexities of auto energy efficiency, union work, labor, wages, tax subsidies, previous bailouts, and - of course - the relationship of the auto crisis to the health care crisis.

The Hotter the Fire the Cooler He Gets

To profile Henry Paulson (again!) in the midst of the financial crisis NPR brings in heavy hitter, Yuki Noguchi (who according to her bio at the WaPo "is particularly interested in writing about how consumers interact with technology and Internet subcultures -- the weirder the better.")

Parents might want to send the kids out of the room for this one. Noguchi is probably going to give us the dirt on Goldman Sachs with it's long tentacles into more governments than United Fruit Co. Or, perhaps like Nomi Prins in the Nation she's going to remind us of "the fact that Paulson presided over Goldman Sachs during a period when the firm increasingly transformed itself from a classic investment bank relying heavily on profit from stable fees into something resembling a hedge fund, in which record profits were based on trading bets made with borrowed funds." Probably she'll consult economist Joseph Stiglitz who will tell her that "Paulson and others in Wall Street are claiming that the bailout is necessary and that we are in deep trouble. Not long ago, they were telling us that we had turned a corner." Or maybe...

...she'll just produce some vacuous, uninformative, weirder the better NPR homage to Paulson, using lines like

• "Garten, a professor at Yale, is no slouch, but he says, Paulson keeps him on his toes."
• "...he [James Gorder] says Paulson appears to have lost none of the endurance and vigor that made him stand out within an office full of overachievers."
• "Garten says Paulson's actually better under fire."
• "...so with the economy on the line, for Henry Paulson, the game is very much on."

It's journalism without mercy - and the direct quotes of "no slouch" Garten (a professor at Yale!) that she includes; they are hardcore:

• "one of the most intense people I have ever met....so alert it makes you feel lazy."
• "....and he came on like a raging bull, and I tell you I couldn't- I simply win a point"
  

and, of course,

• "The hotter the fire the cooler he gets."