Last Saturday morning, I woke up a bit earlier than usual and wound up hearing quite a bit of NPR’s Weekend Edition radio show. What I heard sounded like it had been written by the writers of Fox and Friends (on the Fox “news” network). There was a segment about the economy, and its potential impact on the upcoming presidential election, and it basically amounted to a recitation of GOP talking points.
First, the host commented that all stock indexes had set records recently. He did not actually state what those records were, nor did he provide any kind of historical perspective. He then went on to comment, in a happy-go-lucky sort of way, that it is in fact normal for stocks to set records these days! There was no mention of the fact that stocks started setting records, and rising to new heights, while Obama was president, and that they’ve basically remained on a similar trajectory since that time.
But the segment was all downhill from there. The host then proceeded to announce that our economy is currently experiencing record-setting job growth. There were no actual data points provided. There was no explanation as to what constitutes “record-setting” job growth. And, of course, the host failed to point out that job growth over the last three years actually slowed down from the pace of job growth during the last three years of the Obama Admin.
The host then cheerily summed the whole situation up by announcing that our economy is just rollicking. No one commented on the fact that many of the jobs people have in this “rollicking” economy do not cover their basic needs; and, that as a result, many people have to work at several jobs at once. Other topics that were neglected: the fact that significant portions of the economy, such as manufacturing and trucking, are in recession. No one mentioned the current plight of farmers. The host never brought up the fact that GDP growth has actually been a disappointing two point something percent during, I believe, every year of trump’s pr*sidency. And there was no discussion of how trump’s tariffs may have contributed to such problems because, as far as the host was concerned, there simply aren’t any problems.
Again, there was no actual information under discussion. This wasn’t news, it was narrative. And it was strictly the GOP narrative. That wouldn’t be surprising on Fox “news.” But this broadcast was on an NPR affiliate in my very liberal city. And NPR is supposedly part of the “neutral” press. NPR is the kind of organization we turn to for actual news. And, so far as reality has a liberal slant to it, NPR often comes off as liberal. Unfortunately, in terms of reporting on the economy, they appear to be lapsing pretty heavily into spin. GOP spin !
And it went on: the host then had a discussion with some kind of economic commentator and, I kid you not, that commentator then proceeded to try and blame Obama for some of the issues she identified in our current economy. Seriously. With a brief nod to reality, the commentator acknowledged that health costs continue to rise. But then, in some bizarre twist of logic, she seemed to conclude that the issue was Obama’s fault because his signature accomplishment, the ACA (Obamacare), had failed to solve the problem. There was no mention of the last three years of trumpian sabotage of Obamacare.
But then, finally, they got around to a trump criticism (I honestly think it was the first one). The host asked if trump had a plan for rising health care costs, and the commentator admitted that trump had no such plan. That was it. There was no acknowledgement of the fact that trump’s admin is in fact supporting a lawsuit, all the way up to the supreme court, to invalidate the entire ACA (Obamacare).
Before closing, host and commentator discussed how serious the issue of rising costs in general was for trump and his re-election attempt. The commentator said that that issue provided Democrats with a “toe-hold” on (or into) the issue. Yes, a “toe-hold.” Their conclusion was that trump’s economy was so unquestionably unimpeachable (pun!) that the best democrats could hope for in even approaching the situation was a “toe-hold.”
This broadcast was a tragic dereliction of journalistic integrity, intellectual standards, and just plain common sense. Unfortunately, I suspect that there will be many more like it on many other networks? Why? Because that’s the power of narrative. And narrative can certainly be driven in large part by propaganda. The trump admin, Russia, Fox “news,” conservative radio, and many other GOP outlets will be pushing their narrative relentlessly. And if their narrative really is taking hold, that’s a bad sign for the upcoming election.
So, what to do? My own takeaway is that donald trump, yes, the drumpster fire in the white house, may be on to something. When he says that all he has to do is say stuff and that people will believe it, that may in fact be an important insight. And maybe we should fight that fire with fire. We, and our candidates, need to relentlessly pound away our own narrative. And, yes, I realize that liberals lean more in the direction of wanting actual information. We’re typically not even averse to some facts every now and then. But there’s no guarantee that any of that will help us to formulate a counter-narrative for GOP spin. For that to happen, we need to repeat simple ideas very loudly and relentlessly: save healthcare from trump, economy is unfair, only the rich got tax cuts. Or, just go with: economy bad! economy bad! economy bad! Whatever it is, make it simple, make it a direct attack on trump, and repeat it non-stop until election day!