Tonight on CBS Evening News, they ran a
story about Chile's private pension program. The piece was titled "Success Story" and mainly talked about how great the system is. They talked to some "guy on the street" who said he liked the system, but they never bothered to find out how much he would have made if Chile had kept a government system. They also talked to Jose Pinera, who was Chile's labor minister when the system was put in place. They never mentioned that he works for the CATO Institute.
When they discussed "critics" of the plan, they only talked about how half of the people in Chile are seasonal workers and are therefore not in the system. That is not the main criticism of Chile's privatized pension plan
More below the fold...
Here is what CBS didn't do:
- They did not mention that most Chileans would make more under the old, government pension system.
- The never mentioned the huge administrative fees that go to stock brokers.
- They never mentioned that the privatized system was put into place by a military dictatorship
- They never mentioned that those in the military (in other words, the leaders of the country) wanted no part of the private system and stayed with a government-run pension plan.
This story was one of the most disgraceful that I have ever seen on broadcast news (and believe me, that's saying something!).
But this is not the first time that CBS Evening News ran a deceitful pro-phase-out story. In December, Kevin Drum pointed out that a "man on the street" that they talked to turned out to be an employee of the right-wing National Taxpayers Union.
Watch the video of the story! After that, tell CBS News to stop spreading right-wing propaganda! Link
