Tag: liberal media
The Real Problem With Politicians Like Joni Ernst

The Real Problem With Politicians Like Joni Ernst

What do you do about Joni Ernst? The Republican senator from Iowa is being mocked by liberal media and beyond for her snarky response to a question about cuts in Medicaid: "We all are going to die."

That clumsy remark has been skewered for its insensitivity, but its greater significance lies in the bigger issue. Ernst answers to Donald Trump and no one else.

She is not alone in this. Bowing down to Trump's demands and caving in to MAGA threats have turned several Republicans against the people who voted for them.

Elon Musk has just called Trump's tax-and-spending bill a "disgusting abomination," thus freeing more Republicans to express their doubts. Some House members now express regrets about voting for it. Their excuse is that they didn't quite read it.

Think about that. They regard not doing their job as less politically damaging than owning up to their vote.

More than one in five Iowans receive Medicaid benefits. Rural hospitals will be especially hard hit by the cuts, but so will other medical centers serving large Medicaid populations. Even before the Republican House voted to chop over $700 billion from the program, 28 Iowa hospitals were at risk of closing, according to Becker's Hospital Review.

As the Senate considered the nomination of Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary, Ernst was riding high as one of the holdouts. A handful of other Senate Republicans wouldn't go along, giving Ernst the power to ditch a candidate known for sexual assault, drunkenness and abuse of corporate funds. Worse, Hegseth had little experience relevant to heading the department tasked with defending America from foreign attack. He was just a pretty boy on Fox News.

A combat veteran, Ernst made some impassioned objections to the appointment. But when the MAGA brigade threatened her reelection with a primary challenge, she forgot all about national security.

She explained her decision to cave as follows: "I will be supporting President Trump's pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth." In other words, she was doing it for Trump.

American soldiers risk their lives for the country. Ernst was one. But then she changed shape into a politician who wouldn't even risk reelection, that is, a job, for the country.

In her service to Trump, she turned out to be not very good at politics either. Ernst's attempted recovery from her unfortunate "we are all going to die" comment was a not-very-clever video on Instagram, foolishly staged in a cemetery. Screwing her face up in a look of pain, she apologized for any misunderstanding. Then she made a failed stab at humor, saying, "I'm really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well."

She further insulted the audience by stating, "I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth." That also diverted attention from the issue at hand. The voters weren't demanding immortality, just medical care that would enable them to live longer, healthier lives.

If she really wanted fuller recovery from some awkward moments Ernst could have looked straight at the camera and say, "You know? I'm going to vote against a bill that would deprive so many of my constituents of the most basic health care." And if she wanted to nail down her conservative bona fides, she should have added, "I'm also not voting for tax cuts that blow up federal deficits by trillions."

Chances are excellent that she will vote for whatever Trump wants. That's the real problem with Joni Ernst. It's not a stray comment. It's straying from her duty to her constituents and the country.

Froma Harrop is an award winning journalist who covers politics, economics and culture.She has worked on the Reuters business desk, edited economics reports for The New York Times News Service and served on the Providence Journal editorial board.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

'Liberal Media' Can't Report Biden's Good News

Why 'Liberal Media' Can't Report Biden's Good News Straight Up

Interesting headline in The New York Times: "In an Unequal Economy, the Poor Face Inflation Now and Job Loss Later."

This headline appeared last Monday, after more than 50 straight days of falling gasoline prices, the biggest inflation fear. Once exceeding $5 a gallon, the price of gas in many states was already down below $4 a gallon.

As for "job loss later," what do we mean by "later"? Later includes eternity. What we do know is that more than 500,000 Americans were hired last month, greatly exceeding economists' predictions. The unemployment rate is at a 50-year low, and employers remain desperate for help.

We must recognize that it takes a good deal of mental dexterity to write successful clickbait headlines. But when the headline contradicts the reporting — much of it in the same news source — you have an "alternative facts" situation.

Although the Times is considered liberal, it is also hyper-woke and sensitive to left-fringe feelings. That translates into constant carping against the Democratic leadership for not doing enough — enough of what, not always specified.


The mindset further stipulates that the working poor must be subject to pity and that good news for this group cannot be acknowledged. That's why the report that average hourly earnings grew more than five percent in July from a year earlier — after similar annual gains each month this year — sat so unappreciated.

In truth, it doesn't matter whether the news is good or bad. President Joe Biden must always be seen as not meeting expectations. A rhetorical trick to this end is inserting a "but" in the middle of a headline tied to an encouraging development. An example that just popped up in the Times: "Slowing inflation gave Biden a reprieve but high prices remain a political problem."

The right accuses CNN of also being in the pocket of Democrats, but the news channel rarely presents good news without inserting its own big "but." While reporting on the slowing of inflation, anchor Christine Romans bizarrely added, "That job market is still too hot."

In addition to gas prices, the cost of food is down. Nonetheless, CNN tied the inflation report saying just that to a segment about food shoppers in Philadelphia complaining about ... the prices. One need not go far to find someone willing to gripe about the cost of eggs.

In any case, these are First World problems. If the price of filet mignon has some consumers switching to cheaper chicken, well, the sun will still rise tomorrow at dawn. (Caviar also costs way too much, don't you think?)

This consumer whining gets tied to Biden's low approval numbers. And the low numbers must — The Story goes — get tied to inevitable disaster for Democrats in the midterms.

But a recent Monmouth University poll has 50 percent of adults preferring Democrats in the midterm elections, versus 43 percent for Republicans. Perhaps, just perhaps, the popularity of the president doesn't predetermine what will happen in November. What about the unpopularity of the opposition?

CNN had Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan on to comment on the FBI search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. Duncan is a good Republican who fears that putting Trump back in the headlines will hurt his party in the midterms.

"I'm one of those Republicans that wishes we were sitting there, talking about how bad Joe Biden is doing, how bad inflation is," he said. Never mind that Biden is doing well and that inflation seems to be coming down. Duncan is just passing on the Republican Party talking points.

But Republicans don't have to do that. So-called liberal media is doing it for them.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Why Is The ‘Liberal Media’ So Hostile To Liberals?

Why Is The ‘Liberal Media’ So Hostile To Liberals?

So Joe Biden is in. He’s not millennial, not female, not a member of a racial minority. That’s a problem for him, sayeth much of the so-called liberal media. The problem, however, may be the media.

Biden’s foothold in the Democratic Party wasn’t a problem right after the election of Donald Trump, when Stephen Colbert put Biden on the show to comfort a heartbroken constituency. Colbert’s young audience went wild for him as the embodiment of a decent brand of politics.

We all know that Biden long ago held positions not deemed racially woke by more modern standards. However, they did not deter America’s first African American president from making Biden his running mate. Biden’s traditional views of women may be dated on some counts, but they also include nice things, such as being faithful to one’s wife. Meanwhile, he’s campaigned for scores of female candidates.

One of the most absurd assumptions — pushed by news outlets that should know better — is that Biden isn’t a liberal. “His challenge this time,” the Washington Post reports, “will be to wrestle control of a party that has been energized by many demographics to which Biden does not belong.” First on the list was “liberals.”

Advocating for a stronger Obamacare or plans for expanding Medicare are all liberal positions. Some are more radical than others, but liberal is not synonymous with radical. Importantly, politicians who can make their liberal ideas sound mainstream are the ones who win general elections.

The villain here is conformism more than bias. Always hovering over reporters is The Story that keeps the herd running along the same track.

In a mostly friendly “60 Minutes” interview, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked about the conflicts within the House Democratic Caucus.

“It looks as if it — you’re — it’s fractured,” Lesley Stahl said in reference to The Story. She talked of conflicts “between the moderates and the progressives” and “wings” in the Party, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on one side.

“That’s like five people,” Pelosi responded.

“No,” Stahl came back, “the progressive group is more than five.”

A frustrated Pelosi felt obliged to note, “I’m a progressive.”

For decades, “San Francisco liberal” was practically Pelosi’s first name. Now all of a sudden, she has to defend herself and other Democrats as liberals — all because a handful of new reps elected in super safe Democratic districts have redefined them for a docile media.

Suppose AOC were to lead even 10 radicals. Ten out of 235 House Democrats is hardly a schism. Some 43 of the new Democratic members won in Republican districts.

Not long ago, the Affordable Care Act was considered radical. A preference to merely strengthen it should not be cause for eviction from the progressive home. A liberal media obsessed with social media lends skewed importance to those who are good at it.

How many democratic socialists are there in the caucus? Two.

Face it. Conflict draws readers, which is why reporters of all political bents like to put strife at the center of their stories. Sometimes they accurately portray reality. But very often, they blatantly exploit emotions.

Braver members of the “liberal media” should loudly question the received wisdom, starting with who qualifies as a liberal. As for the others, perhaps it’s time to retire some of the stories they keep repeating to themselves.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com.

IMAGE: Vice President Joe Biden in Mexico City, Mexico, February 25, 2016. REUTERS/Henry Romero 

‘Liberal’ Media Hardest On Obama

A new study from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism suggests that the media is significantly harder on President Obama than it is on any of his Republican challengers. The study stands in stark opposition to the right’s usual claims that “liberal media bias” unfairly props up the president. Politico reports:

Pew found that just 9 percent of the president’s coverage was positive, while 34 percent was negative — a stark contrast to the 32 percent positive coverage and 20 percent negative that it found Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the most covered Republican, received.

The top four most favorably covered candidates, the study found, were all tea party favorites: Perry was followed by Palin, with 31 percent positive coverage and 22 percent negative; Michele Bachmann, with 31 percent positive coverage and 23 percent negative; and Herman Cain, with 28 percent positive coverage and 23 percent negative.

There are several factors contributing to the disparity in coverage. As president, Obama is constantly connected to to the faltering economy. Furthermore, Obama is constantly under attack from the Republican candidates, Congress, and even fellow Democrats; this constant criticism naturally leads to negative media coverage.

Still, the study debunks many Republican cries of unfair coverage by what they derisively refer to “lamestream” media. Sarah Palin’s argument that the President has “about 90 percent of the media still there in his back pocket,” or Anita Perry’s complaint that her husband has been “brutalized” by the press ring hollow based on the Pew study. Overall, it seems that we can add liberal media bias to the long list of Republican claims that are not backed up by the facts.

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