I've been working 18 hour days since Monday, so today was the first chance I had to focus in on politics and discover, "Oh, Obama cut a deal with the Republicans on tax cuts... I wonder what the deal was?"
So I start searching news articles. And I have to read or skim 19 articles focusing entirely on the political horse race of how the deal was made and who doesn't like it and who does like and will it pass and X says it will pass and Y says it won't and A says its bad and B says its great and C says its good for Democrats and D says its bad for Democrats--
And then I finally find an article that actually outlines what the bloody law being proposed actually is
Phew.
One shouldn't have to be this persistent in order to find out--
Wait a minute. This article is actually just regurgitating Biden's press release. And now I'm suspicious because the press release seems to only be listing things that the Democrats want, but nothing that the Republicans wanted. And that seems doubtful.
So now it's back to the search.
And after 10 more articles I finally find Bush Tax Cuts 101 from the Christian Science Monitor. And while I still need to click through six screens before finally reaching the buried lead of tax cuts for the richest Americans, at least the information is there to be found (slim though it may be).
One should not have to be this persistent in order to find substantive information regarding the actual content of our political process (instead of merely navel-gazing at the process itself).
It is this fundamental failure of news reporting in this country which I believe underlies our structurally dysfunctional politics. There can be no meaningful exchange of ideas or debate when the only idea being debated is "I think I should win and they should lose". Win what? Lose what?
If I could only give one piece of advice to every news reporter in the country, it would be this: "The story is not what they're saying. The story is what they're talking about. Report that."
Do your jobs.