Just finished reading a great diary by James …
Dear National Media: Don't Look Now, But You've been Played
… and it reminded me of a segment I heard last month on NPR:
Gen X and President Biden: Reality bites
Tara Schoettle's disapproval of President Biden can be traced back to her childhood.
"I have a distinct memory of when Carter was in office and we had to wait in line for gas," Schoettle told NPR, in reference to the gas shortages that impacted the U.S. under Democratic President Jimmy Carter. "I feel the liberals just have always done this sort of thing and they love to word things as socially responsible and things like that, but they're fiscally very irresponsible."
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/27/1217878506/gen-x-conservative-disapprove-biden
Well, I can “one-up” Tara Schoettle: I remember when Bush crashed the economy in 2008!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/04/25/the-7-worst-moments-of-george-w-bushs-presidency/
(I wasn’t around when Hoover did it, but I know it happened and I know he did it.)
I also remember when a Republican president ignored health warnings about a pandemic and more than a million Americans died.
Why Susan Davis would broadcast such misleading drivel without any sort of correction or clarification is puzzling. Why didn’t Davis mention that the economy has always been better under Democratic presidents?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._economic_performance_by_presidential_party
https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/6d4178de-4e67-49fe-9c04-e4af42ed5964/biden-continues-the-trend-of-strong-economic-growth-and-job-creation-under-democratic-presidents-final.pdf
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/13/biden-economy-voters-unhappy/
https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article281641483.html
Even tfg said Democrats are better for the economy:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-economy-better-under-democrats/
Maybe Susan Davis doesn’t understand how influential these “man-on-the-street” interviews can be on people who aren’t adept at critical thinking. A real journalist would have explained (to the radio audience) that Biden has accomplished quite a lot for the average American.
She could have mentioned some of the really positive things Biden has done in the past few years and referred Schoettle to this segment on NPR:
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1143149435/despite-infighting-its-been-a-surprisingly-productive-2-years-for-democrats
But instead we get this:
At 54, Schoettle is squarely a member of Generation X — those born between roughly 1965 and 1980. That political memory alone helps explain why they tilt more conservative than members of other generations.
I realize that for an audio reporter, it helps to draw people in to your story and helps to pad the time requirement if you include some “regular folks” expressing their opinions. But if you ask questions of people who don’t know their hat from a hole in the ground without correcting their misconceptions, you’re just spreading propaganda!
If media folks would spend more time explaining the reality of how beneficial it is to have a Democratic president, the whole world would be better off. Just as an example, a reporter could preface a question with some background:
“Some of the things President Biden has done for Americans include:
Cutting child poverty in half,
Passing the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package,
Stopping a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence,
Capping prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors,
and achieving historically low unemployment rates after the pandemic.
Then ask: “Do you think these accomplishments will help Biden this coming November?”
(The media’s job is to inform the public, not propagate misconceptions.)